SPORTS
WEEKEND, MAY 14-15, 2016
1B
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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