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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2016)
SPORTS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS PENDLETON Prep Football T-Wolves take care of business Mustangs meet Tigers for CBC title Blue Mountain wins in three over Wenatchee Valley By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian With a little more than two weeks left in the regular season, every match is crucial for the Blue Mountain Timberwolves. Going into Wednesday night’s game, the Timberwolves — the four-time defending NWAC champions — held only a two-and-a-half game cushion for the fourth and Volleyball fi nal playoff berth in the East division, and need all Wenatchee the wins they can get to keep the cushion beneath them. After roughly 90 minutes of Blue Mountain game action on Wednesday evening, the Timberwolves were able to take care of the business they needed, sweeping Wenatchee Valley 25-16, 25-14, 25-18 at Mosby Court. “It felt really good,” said Blue Mountain freshman Shelby Schreier. “We had a lot of energy on the court and just had fun playing.” Blue Mountain (17-14, 6-4 NWAC East) co-head coach Jessica Humphreys echoed the statement. “It just seemed like the team was relaxed and having fun tonight and I think that was a big part of the success,” Humphreys said. Sophomore Miah Perez led the team with 11 kills as her Timberwolves out-hit Wenatchee Valley (9-21, 4-7) 39-23 in the game. Kristin Williams, Shelby Schreier, Jordan Mix, and Brooke Lomica tallied six kills apiece to help pace the T-Wolves. “We identifi ed some spots that were open in (the Knights) defense,” Schreier said of the T-Wolves’ success. Their block would give us a lot of lines and we’d go for that ... make them move around and just hit the ball as hard as we could.” The Blue Mountain front line had a strong game overall, aside from just the kills, regis- tering a total of 12 blocked hits, led by Lomica with four and both Schreier and Williams Postseason scenarios dwindling for local squads By MATT ENTRUP East Oregonian One of the football season’s biggest ques- tions will fi nally be answered in Week 8 when the Heppner Mustangs host the Stanfi eld Tigers on Friday to determine the Columbia Basin Conference champion. At the beginning of the season Mustangs coach Greg Grant said Stanfi eld’s nine returning all-conference players had to make them the favorite to win their fi rst CBC title. Meanwhile, Stanfi eld coach Davy Salas pointed to Heppner’s 18 league titles in the last two decades as reasons the Mustangs remained the team to beat. Neither team has done anything to make either coach change their tune heading into Friday’s 7 p.m. kick-off at Morrow County Fairgrounds. The defending state champions clearly aren’t the same senior-heavy team that steamrolled the Tigers 60-6 in Stanfi eld last season, but the Mustangs’ starting defense has only allowed six points in three league wins, and Heppner (6-1, 3-0 CBC) suffered its only loss to Washington 1A Cascade. Leading Class 2A’s second-ranked defen- sive unit is Heppner senior Kevin Murray with 0 3 See PREP FOOTBALL/2B Staff photo by Kathy Aney BMCC’s Brooke Lomica (6) and Shelby Schreier (15) block the hit of Kendra Wallin, of Wenatchee Valley College Wednesday at the McCrae Activity Center in Pendleton. Staff photo by Kathy Aney BMCC’s Kailey Buckner (5) and Shelby Schreier (15) slap hands after scoring a point during Wednesday’s game against Wenatchee Valley College in Pendleton. with three apiece. “Yeah our blocking game was on point tonight,” Humphreys said. “We did work on that this week in practice so it was nice to see them transfer that to the game.” Humphreys added that freshman Anjoilyn Vreeland caught her eye in the game, as Vreeland stepped in at libero for Bailey Tillotson who missed the game with an illness. Vreeland led the team with 13 digs and added a serving ace as well. “She’s been playing really well in practice and it was an opportunity to give (Bailey) a bit of a rest,” Humphreys said. “We always keep things competitive in practice, incen- tivize the girls to continue to push each other and play hard and everybody fi nds a way on the court that way.” Wenatchee Valley never held a lead at any point of the night, with Blue Mountain winning the fi rst point of each set. There was only one tie in the match as well, when the teams were split 1-1 through the fi rst two points of the fi rst set. In each set, Blue Mountain took some time to settle in, although they did fend off a few feverish runs by the Knights, as well. See T-WOLVES/2B Staff photo by E.J. Harris/fi le In this Oct. 16, 2015, fi le photo, Heppner’s Logan Grieb goes for the catch defended by Stanfi eld’s Justin Keeney in the Mus- tangs’ 60-6 win in Stanfi eld. ALCS Cleveland reaches World Series on Merritt Rookie pitcher delivers with five scoreless innings By NOAH TRISTER Associated Press TORONTO — For the Cleveland Indians, the script was the same every game — hope for the best from whoever they started, then count on Andrew Miller and the bullpen to close it out. That plan seemed espe- cially dicey in T h e Game 5 24-year-old Game 5 of the lefty defi ed AL Champi- expectations, onship Series, shutting with lightly Cleveland Toronto down the used Ryan powerful Merritt on the Blue Jays mound. But out of nowhere, the before exiting in the fi fth inning. Thanks to a most rookie delivered. Merritt coolly kept the unlikely pitching perfor- Indians ahead until reinforce- mance, a most unexpected ments arrived, and Cleveland team won the ALCS 4-1. Cleveland, which has earned its fi rst trip to the World Series since 1997 by never hosted a World Series blanking the Toronto Blue opener, will play Game 1 at Progressive Field on Tuesday Jays 3-0 Wednesday. 3 0 night against the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers. Manager Terry Franco- na’s team will try to augment what’s already been a scin- tillating year in Cleveland after LeBron James and the Cavaliers earned the city’s fi rst major pro sports cham- pionship since 1964. The Indians’ title drought dates to 1948. In 1997, they let a one-run lead get away in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7 and lost See ALCS/2B Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press via AP Cleveland Indians fi rst baseman Carlos Santana cele- brates after the Indians defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 in Game 5 of the baseball American League Cham- pionship Series in Toronto on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. Sports shorts Rose cleared of charges by jury Davis pushes for move to Vegas LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors cleared NBA star Derrick Rose and two friends Wednesday in a lawsuit that accused them of gang raping his ex-girlfriend when she was incapacitated from drugs or alcohol. The jury reached the verdict in federal court in Los Angeles after hearing dramatically different accounts of the August 2013 sexual encounter. Neither side denied the three men had sex with the woman, but the issue was whether she Rose consented or was too intoxicated to do so. Defense lawyers tarred the woman as a liar who tried to sway jurors through her tears to get at Rose’s fortune. They claimed she was angry he had dumped her and she set him up and brought the lawsuit in hopes of a big payoff. HOUSTON (AP) — His eyes on Las Vegas, Raiders owner Mark Davis says he hasn’t shut the door on anything. Oakland, though, might have shut the door on itself as home for his team. “Oakland was in the driver’s seat if they could’ve put together anything,” Davis said Wednesday at the NFL’s fall meetings, after updating his fellow owners on his desire to relocate to the gambling capital. “They came up with nothing. “Las Vegas has already done what it is supposed to do and we have to bring it up to the National Football League and get permission to move to Las Vegas.” Several owners insisted it’s far too early to reach any conclusions in the Raiders’ reloca- tion issue, and none of them wanted to touch the relationship an NFL team might have with a casino mogul. “The fi rst half was abominable. It was like a Donald Trump debate performance out there.” — Rick Carlisle Dallas Mavericks coach on his team’s play during an 106-91 loss to Indiana in a NBA presea- son game on Wednesday. Dallas trailed 47-38 at halftime. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1990 — The Cincinnati Reds complete one of the biggest upsets in baseball history, beating the Oakland Athletics 2-1 to win the World Series in four games. 2002 — Marshall Faulk rushes for 183 yards in the Rams 37-20 win over Seattle, becoming the 15th NFL player to gain 10,000 yards rushing. 2004 — Just three outs from getting swept in the ALCS three nights earlier, the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, winning Game 7 in a 10-3 shocker to become the fi rst major league team to overcome a 3-0 postseason series defi cit. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com
