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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 14, 2016)
SPORTS WEEKEND, MAY 14-15, 2016 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS HERMISTON PENDLETON Bradt leads Bucks into playoffs Greb major player at state Senior pitcher sends Pendleton to postseason with complete game win By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian It was a must-win game for the Pendleton Buckaroos. With a win against Hermiston on Friday, the Buckaroos would clinch a spot in the 5A postseason while a loss coupled with a win by The Dalles over Hood River could send the Bucks home for the summer. But behind the strong right arm of senior pitcher James Bradt, the Baseball Buckaroos made it an easy situation with a 2-1 victory Pendleton over the Bulldogs to secure their postseason berth. “We knew coming into the game that if we Hermiston won it didn’t matter what The Dalles did so it was a big must-win and it felt really good to get the win,” Bradt said. The clinching win was even sweeter for Pendleton since it came against the rival Bulldogs, who had won the irst three games of the season series. “Any game against Hermiston there is extra motivation to win, it’s a rivalry and that’s how it’s supposed to feel. That’s what makes it fun,” Bradt said. Bradt was simply dominant on the mound, as he threw a complete game for Pendleton (13-12, 4-8 CRC) allowing just four Herm- iston (13-11, 6-6) hits and two hit batsmen to go with nine strikeouts. The only run against him came as an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning. “Oh man (James) was outstanding,” said Pendleton catcher Quinn Cockburn. “He was locating everything and the biggest thing was he was hitting every single spot with Pendleton girls and boys hoping for big finishes By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian 2 Staff photo by E.J. Harris Pendleton pitcher James Bradt gets a irst bump from teammate Daniel Naughton after closing out the bottom of the sixth inning of the Bucks’ 2-1 win against the Bulldogs on Friday in Hermiston. 1 Staff photo by E.J. Harris Hermiston’s Hayden Edmiston reaches under the tag from Pendle- ton’s Daniel Naughton in the Bucks’ 2-1 win against the Bulldogs on Friday in Hermiston. his fastball. I could set up inside, outside, wherever I wanted and he was locating and getting guys out with his curveball. “It was just a great game.” Bradt and Cockburn also teamed up to limit Hermiston’s abilities on the basepaths as Bradt picked off a pair of runners at irst base and Cockburn threw out Hayden Edmiston in the second inning and R.J. Robles in the sixth inning at second base to erase scoring chances. Cockburn said he was prepared for the attempted steals both times and felt conident in his throws right after releasing each ball. “I did have a feeling they would steal, we knew the situations when they like to go so I was prepared for it,” Cockburn said. “I felt pretty conident when I released them, I felt like I hit my spots, but I give some credit to Jack (Peterson) for a great pick on the second throw.” Hermiston coach Lance Hawkins said that the baserunning mistakes were very out-of-character for his team and surprising to see. “Those are things we haven’t done all year,” Hawkins said. “I think we were trying to do too much, I think we’re pressing a bit.” After stranding three baserunners through the irst two innings, Pend- leton’s offense inally clicked in the See BASEBALL/2B HERMISTON Pendleton runs wild on Bulldogs in CRC inale Buckaroos pull away late to rout Hermiston Pendleton runner Alexis Morrison slides safely home during Friday’s Columbia River Conference game in Hermiston de- spite the efforts of Hermiston catcher Jaime Hinkley and pitcher Breyanna Naylor. By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian The Hermiston Bulldogs couldn’t get on the bases and Pendleton softball’s Alexis Morrison couldn’t have gotten off them any quicker on Friday as the Buckaroos poured on nine runs in the inal three innings of a 12-2 win in their Columbia River Conference inale. Morrison got on base ive times and made the round trip four times while advancing seemingly at will. She scored three runs of her own volition, twice on wild pitches. “(Morrison) can get on on a single and she can be Staff photo by Kathy Aney on home plate three or four pitches later before we’ve even swung the bat, so she’s a great spark plug,” said Pendleton coach Tim Cary said of his leadoff hitter. Morrison (2 for 3, two walks) did just that in the third inning to give Pend- leton (21-4, 10-2 CRC) a 2-0 lead. She technically reached Softball Pendleton Hermiston 12 2 on an error, and then promptly took second and third on throwing mistakes by Hermiston (14-12, 5-7). A wild pitch brought her home before Ellie Richards took a swing in her at-bat. She nearly added a steal of home plate in the sixth inning but a catcher’s interference gave her the automatic run to make it a 8-0 Pendleton lead. Herm- iston catcher Jamie Hinkley thought she had Morrison in no-man’s land between third and home, but as soon as the ball left her hand Morrison was off. Hinkley stood in front of the plate calling for the ball, but Morrison beat it there and was forced to dodge Hinkley before sliding across home. “(Coach Cary) usually trusts me to know my See SOFTBALL/2B Prep Roundup Hermiston boys tennis qualiies three for state inals District championships through irst two rounds East Oregonian HERMISTON — The Bulldogs boys tennis team qualiied one singles player and one doubles team for the state tournament at the irst day of the district tournament on Friday. At singles, Jake Snell qualiied from his No. 3 seed position with a pair of wins into the semiinals. Snell took a bye into the second round where he took down Moun- tain View’s Kevin Pfeil 6-1 and 6-2 to advance. And in doubles action, Herm- iston’s pair of Race Latham and Cameron Meade also took a irst- round bye before knocking off Mountain View’s duo of Ahern/ Poggione in three sets, dropping the irst set 6-4 before winning the second set 7-6 and then the third set 10-7. Then in the quarterinals, Latham and Meade took down Barajas/ Bustamonte from The Dalles with relative ease 6-1 and 6-0 to advance to the semis. It is the second time that Latham and Meade have qualiied for the state tournament, as the duo did so two years ago as sophomores in different doubles pairs. “My top guys were blessed with wonderful seeds,” said Hermiston coach Shann West. “I’m proud of all three of those guys for accom- plishing their goal. They’ve all put in a lot of work over the last four years and there’s no better way to end your season than with the state berth.” In other singles action, Hermis- ton’s Ayden Prewitt lost in the irst round to Mountain View’s Kaeden Wodke 6-3, 6-3, and Hayden Cissna took down The Dalles’ Alex Lopez 7-5, 6-3 before losing in Round 2 to Summit’s Cole Younger 6-3, 6-1. The Pendleton Buckaroos lone singles win came with Lincoln Johnson taking down Bend’s Jasper Ladkin 2-6, 6-4, 11-9 before he lost to Wodke in Round 2. The semiinals and inals will take place today at 10 a.m. at Armand Larive Middle School in Hermiston. Baseball STANFIELD 15-13, ENTER- PRISE 2-5 — At Enterprise, the Stanield Tigers crushed four home runs and pounded out 16 hits to inish the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of the Enter- prise Outlaws on Friday. Dylan Grogan, as he has been all season, was dominant on the mound and at the plate for the Tigers (24-2, 12-0 EOL). The junior started game See PREPS/3B Pendleton junior Haley Greb has improved her state placing in increments of two every season of her high school golf career. As a freshman she placed ifth, then third last season. A title is well within Greb’s grasp this season, as evidenced by her tie with Crater senior Daniele Giles for their district title. Giles is the top returning golfer to this year’s state ield and was co-champion in 2015. Greb and Giles have been neck and neck all season long, having played in a couple tournaments together. “I think we’ve tied every single time we’ve played each other,” Greb said. “The state course is a little bit tougher and I think it’s going to challenge us a little bit more. I think winning state is deinitely going to be under par so we’re going to have to shoot better than we did at regionals.” The state championships will be held over two rounds at Quail Valley Golf Course in Banks on Monday- Tuesday. All teams will get a practice round on Sunday, and the Bucks were one of several teams to play at a state preview tournament earlier in the season. “I really like it, it might be one of my favorite state courses that I’ve had. The greens are nice, they’re pretty irm compared to what I’ve played so far this season,” Greb said. “It’s a lot of water. That course, almost every hole has water on it. So it’s going to be mainly about keeping the ball in play and making a lot of pars and not a lot of high numbers. If you’re going to have a bad hole take a bogey, not a double or anything like that. It’s going to come down to who has the fewest amount of mistakes.” The entire Bucks team will join Greb at state, and her senior sister Shelby Greb is making her fourth consec- utive state ield coming off a 10th-place inish in 2015. McKenna Pratt was Pend- leton’s alternate at state last season and Megan George and Rylee Harris are making their irst state appearances. Pendleton has been fourth each of the last two seasons. Summit is the defending team champion and comes into the ield as the odds-on favorite to win again. 5A Boys PENDLETON — The Pendleton Buckaroos were four strokes off Summit’s lead after the irst round at the District 2 championships, only to see their second-round surge fail to materialize. They’ll get one more shot at the Storm, the defending state champions, in the OSAA State Championships starting Monday at Trysting Tree Golf Club in Corvallis. “I have 100 percent belief in the ive guys we have,” said Pendleton senior Reilly Hegarty. “I 100-percent believe we can go out there and we can beat them. We have to put eight good rounds together and at the end of the day we need to put our best up against Summit’s best and we’ll see who comes out on top. See GOLF/2B
