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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2017)
SPORTS Wednesday, April 12, 2017 East Oregonian Page 3B NBA Final day of NBA season will decide some seeds, matchups The Associated Press There will be final-night intrigue in the NBA. The two remaining playoff berths will be decided, along with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the site for Game 1 of the series that starts this weekend between the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers. Most individual stat races are already sewn up, barring something that would be most improbable. Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook will become the 16th player in NBA history to win two scoring titles, Houston’s James Harden will lead the league in assists for the first time and Miami’s Hassan Whiteside should be able to wrap up his first rebounding crown. Golden State’s Stephen Curry is a lock to lead the league in 3-pointers made for the fifth straight year, and his Warriors teammate Klay Thompson will finish second Charlotte Hor- nets’ Cody Zeller, top, and Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas, bottom, vie for a loose ball in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, April 8, 2017. The Celtics won 121-114. in that category for the fourth consecutive season. TOP OF THE EAST Boston controls the race for the top seed in the East playoffs. The Celtics will be No. 1 in the East if they beat Milwaukee, or if Cleveland loses to Toronto. The Cava- liers won’t have LeBron James on Wednesday night, and are 0-7 this season when he doesn’t play. Depending on perspec- tive, James will either be resting, recovering or revving for the start of the playoffs. It’s part of his usual playoff preparedness, since he hasn’t appeared in a regular-season finale in a decade. Cleveland can still be No. 1 with a win and a Boston loss. BOTTOM OF THE EAST Dwyane Wade helped Miami win three champion- ships. Now, he might help keep AP Photo/Chuck Burton the Heat out of the playoffs. It’s three teams — Indiana, Chicago and Miami — for the last two spots in the East field. Indiana (which plays Atlanta) and Chicago (which plays Brooklyn) control their destinies. If the Pacers win, they’re in. If the Bulls win, they’re in. If either loses, the door opens for Miami. The Heat would reach the playoffs with a win over Washington, and a loss by either Indiana or Chicago. EAST MATCHUPS The 1-8 and 2-7 matchups in the East cannot be finalized until Wednesday. But the other two first-round series are now set, after Atlanta wrapped up the No. 5 seed BUCKAROOS: Solomon sees work at plate pay off Continued from 1B Tim Cary said there is no such thing as an easy win at Yantis Park. “I think we’re playing pretty well right now and Mac-Hi is always a great team to play, and the atmo- sphere here is great with the fans right on top of you,” Cary said. “Mac-Hi is going to go very very far in 4A, they could win the whole thing, without a doubt. They’re a great team, they forced us to stay on top of our game defensively and offensively. And we played well. The defense was very clean and Lauren was spectacular again.” Pendleton’s offense got going right away with a run in each of the first three innings. In the first inning Rich- ards reached base and went to second on the first of seven Mac-Hi errors, and advanced to third on a ground out. She then scored what would be the game-winning run on a passed ball before Mac-Hi starter Sydney Earls could get out of the inning with another ground ball. In the second, Aspen Garton was hit by a pitch to lead off, then went to third on Tatum Fell’s double to the corner in left field. Garton then tagged up on a sacrifice fly by Ellie Nirschl to make it 2-0. Pendleton’s third started with back-to-back infield errors by the Pioneers, then a hit batter to load the bases. A grounder to third by Garton brought Alexi Brehaut across for Pendleton’s third unearned run. Mac-Hi allowed six unearned runs in the game. “We made too many mistakes today, just different errors. Against good teams you can’t make those, and on defense we’re still trying Staff photo by Matt Entrup Pendleton’s Lauren Richards pitches during a softball game against Mac-Hi on Tues- day at Yantis Park in Milton-Freewater. to put the pieces together,” Christian said. “We’ve got a lot of rotations and trying to figure out what works.” Pendleton added four more runs in the fourth inning when sophomore catcher Kila Solomon went opposite field for a three-run homer to make it 7-0. Consecutive errors had loaded the bases but Kalan McGlothan scored on a wild pitch before Solo- mon’s shot. “She has two (home runs) on the season right now and she’s just done an amazing job improving from last year to this year,” Cary said. “She’s always been outstanding defensively behind the dish, but she’s worked so hard on her hitting in the offseason about trying to go the opposite way with an outside pitch. That’s something that was tough for her last year, but she worked at it, and worked at it and now it’s probably her strength right now.” “It was just something I knew I had to sit down with a Staff photo by Matt Entrup Mac-Hi’s Sydney Richwine bunts for a single in a soft- ball game against Pendleton on Tuesday at Yantis Park in Milton-Freewater. tee and focus on it,” Solomon said. “A lot of pitchers in this age group throw outside and it’s something I had to work on.” A passed ball and error on the same plays allowed two more Pendleton runs in the seventh. UP NEXT Both teams will play league doubleheaders on Saturday starting at noon. Pendleton will host The Dalles for its Columbia River Conference openers, and Mac-Hi hosts La Grande in Greater Oregon League action. ——— R H E PHS 111 040 2 — 9 8 1 M-H 000 000 0 — 0 2 7 L. Richards and K. Solomon. S. Earls, M. Copeland (6) and M. Copeland, B. Potts (6). W — Richards. L — Earls. 2B — T. Fell, A. Garton (PHS). HR — K. Solomon (PHS). with a win over Charlotte on Tuesday night. No. 3 Toronto plays No. 6 Milwaukee in the first round. No. 4 Washington gets the fifth-seeded Hawks. Indiana controls its destiny for No. 7. There are scenarios where the Heat, Bulls and Pacers all could be No. 7 or No. 8. However it shakes out, this much is certain: LeBron James will go up against longtime postseason nemesis Indiana, or his close friend Dwyane Wade, or his former Heat team in the opening round. And that will be made- for-TV stuff. CLIPPERS-JAZZ Utah hasn’t started the playoffs at home since 2001. The Jazz could change that this year, if they beat San Antonio on Wednesday while the Clippers lose at home to Sacramento. That’s the only scenario where the Jazz would be seeded No. 4 in the Western Conference playoffs. Otherwise, the Clippers will get home-court for the first-round series against Utah. All the other seeds and matchups out West for the first round are set: No. 1 Golden State vs. No. 8 Port- land, No. 2 San Antonio vs. No. 7 Memphis, and No. 3 Houston vs. No. 6 Oklahoma City. BRIEFLY TCU running back Trevorris Johnson to transfer to Oregon State CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — TCU running back Trevorris Johnson is transferring to Oregon State for his final season of eligibility. Johnson will graduate this June with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from TCU. He is expected to arrive in Corvallis in June and will be available immediately as a graduate transfer. The 6-foot, 237-pound back rushed for 789 yards and eight touchdowns in 36 games over his career at TCU, after redshirting as a freshman in 2013. He ran for a career-best 105 yards in a game against Texas Tech in 2014. “We are very excited to have someone of Trevorris’ ability, character and focus join our program,” Beavers coach Gary Andersen said. “He brings a level of maturity to our team on and off the field.” Johnson plans to pursue a master’s degree in counseling at Oregon State. Ex-Oregon Ducks coach pleads no contest to drunken driving EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A former assistant football coach at the University of Oregon pleaded no contest to a charge of driving while intoxicated. David Reaves, 38, entered the plea Monday and must complete a court-ordered diversion program in his home state of Florida. The drunk- en-driving charge will be dismissed if he completes the diversion program. The Register-Guard reports that Reaves declined comment following his court appearance in Eugene. City prosecutors agreed to dismiss a charge of recklessly endangering another person. Reaves came to Oregon this year to serve as the Ducks’ co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach. He was arrested Jan. 22 — five days after his hiring was announced. Oregon’s Tyler Dorsey declares for the NBA draft EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Oregon sophomore Tyler Dorsey says he will declare for the NBA draft and hire an agent. Dorsey was a key to the Ducks’ run to the Final Four this past season. It was the first time Oregon had made it to the national semifinals since they won the first NCAA Tournament in 1939. He made the announce- ment on Twitter. “I have carefully deliberated this decision with my family and feel the timing is now right to pursue my path to a professional basketball career,” he said in the post. The 6-foot-4 two-year starter averaged 14.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game last season. His play picked up as the season went on and he averaged 23.5 points over the Ducks’ five tournament games. Dorsey also declared for the draft last season and went through the evalua- tion process but never hired an agent. TIGERS: Reliever Klay Jenson gives Stanfield another steady arm in rotation Continued from 1B Staff photo by E.J. Harris Stanfield’s Tony Flores throws from the mound in the Tigers’ 13-3 win against Irrigon on Tuesday in Stanfield. solid outings from its pitchers in Flores and Klay Jenson, though Flores did have some rocky moments. In the first inning, Flores walked Irrigon’s (9-1, 2-1) leadoff hitter Lino Covarrubia and then gave up a towering double to Rice to put runners on second and third with no outs. Roa scored Covarrubia on a sacrifice fly to center and Zach Henrichs had an RBI groundout to give the Knights a 2-0 lead. Then Flores tossed four straight strikeouts, which included striking out the side on just 12 pitches in the second. But in the third he ran into more trouble, giving up a single, walk and single to load the bases with no outs. He walked Roa to bring in a run and give Irrigon a 3-1 lead, before re-discovering his groove and tossing three straight strikeouts to end the inning. “I felt pretty good overall, I just need to work on controlling my fastball,” Flores said of his early strug- gles. “Sometimes I leave it too high and I tend to walk a lot there ... but I knew I just need to throw strikes. Guys are going to hit the ball, that’s what baseball is, so I just got it under control.” Stanfield took the lead for good in the third when Jenson ripped a two-out single that found a gap between third base and shortstop and into left field to bring in a pair to put the Tigers up 5-3. They added on in the inning when Thyler Monkus popped one up behind the shortstop but some miscommunication by the Knights shortstop and left fielder allowed the ball to drop, scoring a pair for a 7-3 lead. Flores and Dylan Grogan, who finished a team-best 3 for 4 at the plate, then smacked back- to-back doubles into the left- center field gap to put Stanfield up 9-3 after three full innings. “Last week we kind of struggled a bit getting into hitters counts but man they hit the ball really well tonight,” Stanfield coach Brad Rogers said of his team. “They were really selective, had great approaches at the plate which is something I thought we needed to improve on and they did a good job.” Jenson picked up where Flores left off in the fourth inning, as he tossed three hitless and scoreless innings of relief, giving up just two walks and four strikeouts. Jenson, who missed all of last season recovering from a knee injury, has now thrown 10 consecutive innings without giving up a run or a hit span- ning three games, where he has allowed just four walks with eight strikeouts. “He’s improved so much,” Flores said of Jenson. “He’s missed what, two years now and we feel more confident with him. He brings a spark and you just want to match him and compete with him.” Rogers said that adding an arm like Jenson to an already loaded Tiger pitching staff that returned everybody from last season makes it that much sweeter. “It’s an arm we didn’t have last year and the same thing with Hunter Barnes who has been throwing quality innings,” Rogers said, “it’s a big bonus for us. But Klay’s first outing of the year he kind of struggled and I sat down and talked with him, and now he’s been working really hard and he’s back to form he was in and that’s big for us.” Stanfield’s offense picked up again in the fourth when Woods led off the inning with a solo home run that he blasted over the 350-foot sign in left-center field. Woods said afterward that he got a belt- high fastball from Irrigon’s pitcher, and he knew it was gone as soon as it left his bat. Then in the fifth, Stanfield got a leadoff triple from Grogan followed by an RBI double from Ryan Bailey to make it a 11-3 game. Woods was then hit with a pitch, and Hunter Barnes followed with an RBI double and Justin Keeney reached on an Irrigon error which brought home Woods to inact the 10-run rule and make the game final. UP NEXT Stanfield will host Nyssa (4-6, 2-1) for a doubleheader Friday starting at 1 p.m. Irrigon will host Joseph on Friday for a doubleheader also starting at 1 p.m. ——— R H E IHS 201 00 — 3 3 1 SHS 126 13 — 13 13 0 (IHS) A. Rice and Z. Henrichs, A. Roa (3), J. Phillips (3), Harrington (5) and K. Fleming. (SHS) T. Flores, K. Jenson (4) and T. Monkus. WP — T. Flores, LP — A. Roa. 2B — A. Rice (IHS); T. Flores, D. Grogan, R. Bailey (SHS). 3B — D. Grogan (SHS). HR — B. Woods (SHS). ——— Contact Eric at esinger@ eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0839. Follow him on Twitter @ByEricSinger.