SPORTS
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016
Sports shorts
Seahawks sign pair
of linemen
RENTON, Wash. (AP) —
The Seattle Seahawks signed
defensive tackle Sealver
Siliga and
tackle
Bradley
Sowell to
one-year
contracts on Monday.
The two players are the
¿ rst outside signings of the
offseason for Seattle. They
had re-signed defensive tackle
Ahtyba Rubin, cornerback
Jeremy Lane, wide receiver
Jermaine Kearse and punter
Jon Ryan since free agency
began last week.
Siliga brieÀ y spent time
with Seattle in 2013 after
being acquired in a trade
but never played for Seattle
before being released and
signing with the New
England Patriots, where he
spent the last three seasons.
Sowell spent the last
four years with the Arizona
Cardinals. He started 10
games at left tackle in 2013
but has not started a game in
either of the last two seasons.
1B
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HERMISTON
Bulldogs win big, take fourth
Mariners get to
Greinke, lose split
squad game
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
(AP) — Every pitcher gives
up runs in spring training,
even Zack Greinke.
Greinke haG his ¿ rst
rough inning of the spring
Monday in
FACES the Arizona
Diamondbacks’
8-3 victory
over a Seattle
Mariners split
squad.
Greinke gave
up a home run
Greinke
to Kyle Seager
and triples to Luis Sardinas
and Seth Smith in a three-run
third. The right-hander, signed
by the Diamondbacks to a
six-year, $206.5 million free
agent contract, went 3 2-3
innings. He allowed three
runs on six hits, struck out
two and hit a batter.
“It’s a lot more bad
pitches than you’d ideally
want,” he said. “The fastball
was coming out pretty good,
just the location wasn’t that
great. Same thing with the
slider and change.”
“You asked the
question whether I
thought there was
a link. Certainly
based on Dr.
McKee’s research,
there’s a link,
because she’s
found CTE in a
number of retired
football players.“
— Jeff Miller
NFL senior vice president
for health and safety
acknowledging a link
between football and the
brain disease CTE for
the fi rst time during an
appearance Monday at
a congressional commit-
tee’s roundtable discus-
sion about concussions.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1869 — The Cincinnati
Red Stockings, the ¿ rst pro
baseball team, is organized
by George Ellard and Harry
Wright.
1997 — North Carolina’s
Dean Smith becomes the
career victory leader when the
Tar Heels beat Colorado 73-56.
Smith, with 877 victories,
passes Kentucky coaching
legend Adolph Rupp.
2012 — Syracuse avoids
becoming the ¿ rst No. 1 seed
to lose to a 16 when it rallies
for a 72-65 victory over
North
Carolina-Asheville
in the East Regional. The
Bulldogs were up 34-30 at
halftime — the seventh 16
seed to lead at the break.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston’s Sara Ramirez lies across the laps of her teammates as time runs out in the Bulldogs’ 64-36 win against Marist Catholic on
Saturday in Corvallis.
Hermiston ends season by routing Marist at state tournament
By SAM BARBEE
East Oregonian
CORVALLIS — The Hermiston
Bulldogs ¿ nished the 2015-16
campaign with a big win Saturday,
beating Marist Catholic 65-36 to
take fourth place
in the OSAA 5A Girls Hoops
girls
basketball
state tournament.
After a slow
Hermiston
start in the ¿ rst
quarter, the Bull-
dogs outscored the
Spartans 55-19 the
rest of the way for
an easy victory.
Marist
Kynzee Padilla
was
a
force
inside, grabbing
12 rebounds and
scoring 14 points, including going 8
for 8 from the free throw line.
Jansen Edmiston led the Bull-
dogs with 16 points, Sara Ramirez
had 15 and Maddy Juul scored 14.
It was the second double-digit
win of the week for the Bulldogs at
65
36
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston’s Kiana Heehn, Jansen Edmiston and Sara Ramirez re-
ceive the fourth place trophy after defeating Marist 64-36 in the 5A
state basketball championships on Saturday at Gill Coliseum in
Corvallis.
the Gill Coliseum tournament after
beating Bend on Thursday to earn
the spot in Saturday’s game.
It wasn’t the outcome the
team had hoped for going into the
bracket, but Hermiston coach Steve
Hoffert said the team was happy
with its season.
“Sunday I reÀ ected. I think all
the girls reÀ ected,” he said. “They
said, ‘You know, it was a pretty
good year, wasn’t it Coach?’ We did
a lot of good things.”
Hermiston ran through a dif¿ cult
schedule, losing just four games to
some of the best teams in the state.
One loss came to the third-place
Corvallis Spartans in the ¿ rst round
of the state tournament. Another
came to 5A runner-up Spring¿ eld. A
third came to 6A South Medford, a
second seed in that tournament, and
the fourth to Chaparral (AZ), which
went 21-8 this season.
“I know we didn’t end where we
wanted to, but this season was the
most enjoyable for me,” Edmiston
said. “I didn’t want it to end, but it
happened eventually. … After we
lost the ¿ rst game, we made the
most of what we could.”
Though an anticipated return to
the state championship game never
materialized, Hoffert and his girls
look back at the 2015-16 with fond
memories.
“You look back at our schedule,
to come out with 24 wins is pretty
See BULLDOGS/2B
Prep Track & Field
Prep Roundup
Bylenga leads locals in Portland
Rockets blast
into season,
win opener in
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Pendleton senior
places second in
800-meter run
East Oregonian
PORTLAND — University
of Florida-bound Pendleton
senior Nolan Bylenga started
his track and ¿ eld season with
a second-place ¿ nish at the
Portland Indoor Track Classic
over the weekend.
He was one of several
local athletes competing at the
abbreviated high school meet
held in conjunction with the
U.S. Track and Field Indoor
Championships at Oregon
Convention Center.
Bylenga took silver in the
800-meter run with a time of
157.15 to ¿ nish between East-
lake’s Nathan Pixler (1:55.67)
and Lakeridge’s Noah Becik
(1:58.52). It was the highest
¿ nish of the day for the locals
in attendance.
Bylenga also competed in
the mile run, and placed 23rd
with a time of 4:36.31. West
Linn senior Roman Ollar won
the event in 4:19.83.
Pendleton girls had the only
other top 10 ¿ nishes at the
meet, which held three track
events and two ¿ eld.
Buckaroos junior Kiara
See TRACK & FIELD/2B
Pilot Rock beats Riverside
in first softball game
East Oregonian
PILOT ROCK — The defending 2A/1A
state champion Pilot Rock softball team
opened its season with a win by beating
Riverside 17-2 in ¿ ve innings on Monday.
Shayla Walker went 2 for
3 at the plate and drove in a
Softball
pair of runs in the second
inning to get the Rockets
(1-0) going on offense and
Riverside
Rebekka Holman picked up
the win after 3 2-3 innings
in the circle.
Desiree Maddern added
a 2 for 2 afternoon at the
plate and hit one of the
Pilot Rock
team’s four doubles. She
reached base three times.
Rockets coach Darin
Fitzpatrick said it was a
good, not great, start to the season consid-
ering the team’s three errors. One of those
gave Riverside (0-1) a 1-0 lead in the ¿ rst
inning.
“It was a good start but we’ve got some
things to work on,” he said. “We had some
See PREPS/2B
2
17
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Nolan Bylenga, of Pendleton and running unattached,
leads the 800 at the Portland Indoor Track Classic at the Or-
egon Convention Center in Portland. Bylenga was passed
at the end to take overall second place in the event.