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SPORTS THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2016 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS PENDLETON MLB T-Wolves loaded in 2016 BMCC returns seven players from the 2015 title team By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian There are a lot of numbers the Blue Mountain Commu- nity College volleyball team could concern itself with as the 2016 season nears. Four and fi ve come to mind right away — that’s the number of consecutive and overall NWAC championships the teams has won. Seven is another good one — that’s how many sopho- mores return to the roster. Also high on the list could be 42 (wins last season) or 50 (the record number of wins collected by the 2014 squad). Sixteen, which is how many divisional games are on their schedule, is certainly deserving. And one would have to think 2,340, which is the miles they’ll travel by bus to get to and from those games, would at least be on the fringes In this Sept. 11, 2015 fi le photo, BMCC’s Jordan Mix tips the ball over North Idaho’s Brooke Bell in the Timber- wolves’ 3-2 win against the Car- dinals in Pendle- ton. of their consciousness. Certainly the almighty No. 1 is on their mind, right? Wrong. The only number the Timberwolves are thinking about right now is a big fat zero, as in 0-0. That’s their record during the third week of practices, and that’s going to remain their record for the rest of the season. It’ll also remain the score to every game and every match, right up until a winner is declared. “We’re really big into 0-0,” Staff photo by E.J. Harris See T-WOLVES/2B HERMISTON Hermis- ton’s Tyler Rohrman (16) goes up against Tucker Sali- nas during a drill in Wednes- day’s football practice at Kennison Field. Rohr- man, a ju- nior, is one of three returning starters to the Bulldogs secondary. When Hermiston senior Vaemu Ena grew two inches between his sophomore and junior seasons, Bulldogs coaches took a look at the 6-foot-2, 175-pound athlete and By ABBEY MASTRACCO Associated Press ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ketel Marte drove in the tiebreaking run with a sacrifi ce fl y, Leonys Martin scored from second base on a bunt, and the Seattle Mari- ners held on for a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night. Robinson Cano had three hits, Kyle Seager and Chris Iannetta Seattle each had two hits and scored a run as the Mariners won for the Los Angeles 10th time in 12 games to move two games behind Baltimore for the second AL wild card. Drew Storen (3-3) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win. Mariners closer Edwin Diaz gave up a run and loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but struck out Jefry Marte and got Andrelton Simmons to ground out for his eighth save in eight chances. Yunel Escobar went 5 for 5 for Los Angeles, his fi fth career fi ve-hit game. Since 2000, only Ichiro and Johnny Damon have more with seven each. Tyler Skaggs (1-2) gave up four runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings. With the score tied at 2-all, Iannetta led off the fourth with a single to center and moved to third on Martin’s single. After Martin stole second, Ketel Marte’s sacri- fi ce fl y drove in Iannetta with the go-ahead run. Shawn O’Malley then laid down a bunt and reached base safely. Jefry Marte thired tried to throw Martin out at third but he was already breaking for home plate and scored easily on the relay. Mike Morin then came on See MARINERS/2B 3 Dawgs secondary a primary strength By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian Seattle wins 10th in 12 games 4 Staff photo by Matt Entrup Hermiston returns three starters to defensive backfi eld M’s hold off Angels fi gured a move up to the defensive line was in order. That’s where he was listed on the team’s initial roster, but it wouldn’t be where he fi nished. With three senior returners already on the line and another junior in front of Ena, the athletic former linebacker was moved to safety, where he quickly made the position his own. By the end of the season he had earned honorable mention all-state and fi rst-team All-Columbia River Conference honors and was one of the defense’s Olympics most productive players with 40 tackles, fi ve interceptions with a whopping 158 return yards, and three pass break-ups in just eight games. He’s one of, but not the only, reason Hermiston coach David Faaeteete is hoping the defensive backfi eld can be one of the team’s top units in 2016. “I think our secondary is going to be pretty tough this year,” he said. “We’ve got a lot returners back there. I think everybody’s back in the secondary.” Well, yes and no. Junior cornerback Tyler Rohrman, senior safety Joey Gutierrez and junior cornerback Dayshawn Neal round out the starting unit. Rohrman was a second-team All-CRC corner last season and had 21 tackles and three pass breakups in six games. Gutierrez is a converted All-CRC second-team linebacker who had 42 tackles, one interception, two pass breakups and one fumble forced as a junior, and Neal started at quarter- See HERMISTON/2B Americans make track and fi eld history US women become just seventh country to sweep 100M hurdle event By EDDIE PELLS Associated Press AP Photo/Lee Jin-man Gold medal winner Brianna Rollins, center, silver med- al winner, Nia Ali, right, and bronze medal winner Kristi Castlin, all from the United States celebrate after the 100-meter hurdles Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s no easy thing to push Usain Bolt, even in an Olympic warm-up race. Might be even tougher upstaging him. But that happened on a wild Wednesday night in track. It began with the Jamaican star exchanging smiles, then wagging his fi nger at a brash up-and-comer who dared challenge him in the 200-meter semifi nals. It kept going with another Jamaican, Elaine Thompson, completing the fi rst 100-200 women’s double since 1988. And it closed with an American sweep of the hurdles to put the cherry on top of a seven-medal day for the United States on the track. Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin fi nished 1-2-3 in the 100-meter hurdles to give the United States its fi rst sweep in the event, its seventh in the history of Olympic track and the 23rd for U.S. women, regardless of sport, over the history of the Summer Games. After they saw their names come up on the scoreboard, they huddled together, hugged and jumped up and down before grabbing their U.S. fl ags from the stands. “I knew that I got the gold but I just wanted to make sure that my other teammates got their medals, as well,” Rollins said. It was a not-all-unexpected result, though this might be an eye-opener: Both 2008 champion Dawn Harp- See OLYMPICS/2B Sports shorts Graham could not be ready for Seattle’s season opener RENTON, Wash. (AP) — Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll tempered some of his optimism regarding tight end Jimmy Graham’s ability to be ready for the start of season. FACES the Carroll said Wednesday that, as expected, Graham will not play against Minnesota on Thursday in the Seahawks’ second preseason game. Graham is recovering from a torn patellar tendon in his right knee suffered last November in a Graham game against Pittsburgh. Graham was activated off the PUP list last week and returned to limited practice. “Really we’re shooting for where is he at the start of the season?” Carroll said. “We’ll evaluate then how much longer it may take. We don’t know that yet. But he feels good and he’s confi dent it’s going along well.” “Every time I watch ‘em, I wish I was out there. I did not retire from Team USA. I just did not play this summer. So I still left the door open.“ — LeBron James Two-time gold medal winner in Olympic basketball and Cleveland Cavaliers forward on his decision to sit out the Rio Games. US men’s basketball fi nally shows potential in semifi nals RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — This was the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team that everyone expected to see at the Rio Games, now right where it was expected to be — in the semifi nals. Emphatically ending a stretch of three straight close games, the Americans advanced by sprinting past Argentina 105-78 on Wednesday night. Turning a slow start into an early ending with a 27-2 run in the fi rst half, the Americans put away one old rival and set up a meeting with another. They will play Spain on Friday in a rematch of the last two gold-medal games. Kevin Durant scored 27 points for the Americans while DeMarcus Cousins, the playing as a reserve, fi nished with 15 points. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1994 — South Africa is introduced for the fi rst time in 36 years during the opening ceremonies of the 15th Commonwealth Games held in Victoria, British Columbia. South Africa had been banned from the Games since 1958 because of its apartheid policies. 2008 — A day after winning an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, Rafael Nadal offi cially unseats Roger Federer to become the world’s No. 1 tennis player when the ATP rankings are released. Federer had been atop the rankings for 235 consecutive weeks. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com