SPORTS
FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017
1B
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HERMISTON
Bulldogs rollick past Eagles on opening day
Boosted by great
weather, Hermiston
sweeps Hood River
in dual track meet
By MATT ENTRUP
East Oregonian
For the fi rst time in what
seemed like months, the
Hermiston Bulldogs were
greeted with lots of clear
skies and sunshine as they
arrived at Kennison Field
to take on the Hood River
Valley Eagles in a dual meet
to open the 2017 track and
fi eld season.
Stuck indoors through
much of the offseason, the
Bulldogs showed they’d
still been hard at work and
swept the Eagles on the team
scoreboard. The boys took an
85-50 victory and the girls
“The track heats up, you can smell the track, and
you just feel like track season is here.”
— Tyler Rohrman,
Hermiston junior
won by a similar margin
81-47. The Bulldogs’ junior
varsity teams followed suit
the boys winning 57-48 and
the girls winning 55.5-43.5.
Bulldogs coach Emilee
Strot said the wins might
have been the least important
part of the day.
“With how much snow
and stuff, we literally didn’t
have a track to train on all
winter long, so we were
running inside in the hall-
ways, on the carpet, trying
to do what we can,” she said.
“And so the last three weeks
we’ve had to put in a lot of
hard work, and our kids are
beat up, they’re tired. So
today I just told them to have
fun and compete.”
Hermiston junior Tyler
Rohrman said the clear skies
made it much easier to do
that.
“We kind of came out
here and we were kind of
surprised we were in Herm-
iston, Oregon. I mean, it’s a
See BULLDOGS/2B
ATHENA
Pioneers hang on to beat TigerScots
Rachael
Lyon, of
Mac-Hi,
scores
during
Thursday’s
non-confer-
ence game
against
Weston-
McEwen in
Athena.
Charmayne
Bennett (12),
of Weston-
McEwen, is
greeted by
the rest of
her team at
home plate
after she
hit a home
run during
Thursday’s
non-confer-
ence game
against Mac-
Hi in Athena.
Mac-Hi wins
season opener in
offensive barrage
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
By the time Thursday’s season-
opening softball game for both
Mac-Hi and Weston-McEwen
was complete, the fi nal score
looked like it came from a football
game instead.
That’s because Mac-Hi left
town with a 20-17 victory over the
TigerScots, a game that featured a
combined 31 hits between the two
squads and took just over three
hours to complete.
“I don’t hink I’ve ever had that
many runs for a season-opener,”
Mac-Hi coach Nicole Christian
said after the game. “To come out
with a win you always feel good,
but wow, 20 runs ... to put up that
number of runs was great to see.”
Mac-Hi (1-0) struck for two
runs and three hits in the fi rst
inning against Weston-McEwen
pitcher Bailey Hillmick, but
then Hillmick kept the Pioneers
offense quiet over the next two
frames to allow her team to get the
bats going.
Weston-McEwen (0-1) got its
fi rst run in the second inning off
a solo homerun that Charmayne
Bennett blasted over the center
Staff photo by
Kathy Aney
Staff photo by
Kathy Aney
Softball
Mac-Hi
Weston-McEwen
20
17
fi eld wall and then Tyree Burke
scored later on a passed ball to tie
the game at 2-2. Then in the third
inning, Weston-McEwen touched
up Pioneer pitcher Graci Bullock
for four runs — two of which
came on consecutive passed balls
and then Courtney Cain follow up
with a two-run blast over the right
fi eld fence for a 6-2 lead.
But then in the fourth inning,
the Pioneers got things going in
a big way. All-in-all, 14 batters
came to the plate in the inning as
Mac-Hi pushed across 10 runs on
four hits and four walks to jump
out to a 12-6 lead.
“I think we fi nally adjusted to
the pitcher,” said Mac-Hi senior
Micha Fortune, who fi nished the
game 5-for-6 at the plate with
three runs scored and three stolen
bases. “We were talking to eacho-
ther, letting eachother know what
she (the pitcher) was doing and it
worked.”
From that point on, Mac-Hi
added three more runs in the
fi fth, four in the sixth and one
more in the seventh inning as the
offense kept pounding away at the
Weston-McEwen pitchers.
Behind Fortune’s big day,
Mac-Hi had big performances at
See PIONEERS/2B
Prep Roundup
Stanfi eld baseball drops opener to Tri-Cities Prep
Tigers issue
several walks
East Oregonian
STANFIELD — The
defending 3A state cham-
pions fell fl at in their 2017
season opener, dropping the
contest 18-9 to Tri-Cities
Prep on Thursday afternoon
at Madigan Field.
Stanfi eld coach Brad
Rogers said he decided
against starting pitching
aces Dylan Grogan or Brody
Woods because of the short
changeover from the duos
deep playoff run on the
basketball team. Rogers said
the basketball players have
had just seven days of practice
and throwing to this point.
But senior Klay Jenson
got the start for Stanfi eld
in his fi rst game back after
missing all of 2016 with a
knee injury and had some
struggles walking four
batters in one inning. As a
team, Stanfi eld walked 13
Tri-Cities Prep batters in all.
“I thought we might
struggle today,” Rogers said.
“Defensively and offensively
we looked good, but walking
13 batters you just can’t win
like that.”
After Jenson allowed the
two runs in the fi rst inning,
Stanfi eld answered with
three runs of their own in
the bottom of the inning to
take a 3-2 lead. Grogan got
the scoring started with an
RBI single into left fi eld to
bring home Thyler Monkus
from third and then two
batters later Ryan Bailey
would score on an error by
the second baseman to tie it
at 2-2.
The third run came on
another TCP error, this time
by the shortstop, which
allowed Grogan to score for
the 3-2 lead.
But in the second inning,
things fell apart for Stanfi eld
as the walks began to pile
up and the Tigers could just
never recover.
Bailey was Stanfi eld’s
top performer at the plate
Thursday, going 3-for-4 with
two runs scored and a RBI,
while Grogan went 1-for-3
with three runs scored and
a RBI and Hunter Barnes
added one hit and two RBI.
Stanfi eld next hits the road
on Saturday for a game against
DeSales (WA) at 11 a.m.
———
R H E
TCP
293 004
0 — 18 11 5
SHS
330 102
0 — 9 6 2
(TCP) T. Mercado, J. Hartwig (2), C. Ritala
(6). (SHS) K. Jenson, A. Renner (2), H.
Barnes (2), D. Curiel (6) and T. Monkus.
2B — C. Wilson, C. Ritala (TCP).
TOUCHET
21-16,
UMATILLA 11-14 — At
Irrigon, the Vikings will have
to wait to make their home
debut after Thursday’s games
were moved to Irrigon due to
a soggy fi eld in Umatilla.
Touchet (WA) was more at
home in Irrigon and used big
innings in both games to get
the sweep. Touchet scored 11
runs in the third inning of the
opener to blow open a game
that went into the inning with
Umatilla down 6-4. Then in
Game 2, Touchet plated 12 in
the fourth to jump to a 16-6
lead.
The Vikings (0-2-1) didn’t
wilt, though, and scored two
runs in the fi fth and sixth,
then four in the seventh to
make it a close outcome.
“There’s no giving up in
them, and that’s what I like
about them,” said Umatilla
coach John Garrett. “We
just need to clean up our bad
innings, and we’ve got more
practice for that.”
Seth Cranston had a big
day despite the two losses.
He hit a double and a grand
slam to drive in six runs
while going 3-for-4 in Game
1, and he added a double in
Game 2.
Umatilla’s next game is
Tuesday when it hosts Union
at 4 p.m.
———
Game 1
R H E
THS
42(11) 13 — 21 10 3
UHS
400 61 — 11 11 7
L. Butler, J. Kates (4). D. Soto, U. Garcia
(3), C. Sampson (3) and C. Sampson, A.
Wislon (3). W — Butler. L — Soto.
2B — Ortiz, Kates, Laroque (THS); S.
Cranston (UHS). HR — S. Cranston (UHS).
Game 2
R H E
THS
112 (12)00 0 — 16 12 3
UHS
330 022
4 — 14 16 5
Ortiz, Kates (5). S. Cranston, D. Soto (4),
C. Sampson (5), C. Keller-Morris (7). W —
Ortiz. L — Cranston.
2B — S. Cranston. M. Garcilazo (UHS).
BOYS GOLF
WALLA WALLA, Wash.
— The Pendleton Buckaroos
opened their season with a
middling performance that
leaves plenty of room for
improvement as they took on
Walla Walla Country Club
for the fi rst time.
See PREPS/2B
Sports shorts
Mounties earn postseason honors
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Senior standout
Bryan McGriff earned NAIA Second-Team
All-America honors, and senior guard Kentrell
Washington was named Honorable Mention, the
national offi ce announced on Thursday morning.
The dynamic duo started and
played in all 33 games this season,
accounting for nearly 41 percent of
the team’s scoring and 40 percent of
the Mountaineers’ rebounding efforts.
“I couldn’t be prouder of Bryan
and Kentrell for the accolades they
have accumulated this season,” said
McGriff
head coach Isaac Williams. “There
is no higher individual award than being referred
to as an All-American. It’s something they can
hold onto for the rest of their lives, and I’m just
humbled to have been a part of it.”
McGriff fi nished 12th in the NAIA in points per
game (21.6) and 15th in rebounds per game (9.4).
Washington chalked up 15.2 points and 7.4 boards.
“For me, I’m making
best of the situation. I
didn’t come back for
personal goals, I came
back to be in the spot
I am right now and
trying to make another
run for a national
championship, and I’m
still able to do that. So
there’s no regrets there.“
— Grayson Allen
Duke junior guard on his decision
to pass on the opportunity to be a
fi rst-round pick in the NBA draft
to return for this season.
Longtime Oregon volleyball
coach Jim Moore steps down
EUGENE (AP) — Oregon women’s
volleyball coach Jim Moore is stepping down
after 12 seasons.
Oregon announced
Wednesday night that Moore is
retiring as of May 15. The school
said in a statement that Moore
and the Ducks “have come to
realize that his coaching style is mismatched”
with Oregon’s standards.
“He has acknowledged that his coaching
style may have been viewed negatively by
some student-athletes and for that he is sorry,”
the statement said.
Moore compiled a 186-98 record as head
coach, leading the Ducks to the NCAA
Tournament 10 times. He was Volleyball
Magazine’s national coach of the year in 2012.
Assistant Matt Ulmer has been named
interim head coach.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1897 — Bob Fitzsimmons
knocks out Jim Corbett in the
14th round to win the world
heavyweight title in Carson
City, Nev. It’s the fi rst boxing
match photographed by a
motion picture camera.
1955 — Canadien fans
riot in the streets of Montreal
protesting NHL President
Clarence Campbell’s suspen-
sion of Maurice “Rocket”
Richard the previous day.
The Canadiens forfeit the
game to the Detroit after
a smoke bomb goes off in
the Forum, and crowds spill
into the streets, setting fi res,
smashing windows and
looting.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com