SPORTS WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS Little League Softball Football Oregon stuns Hawaii A frightening truth In this 1974 fi le photo, Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Sta- bler looks to pass. Research on the brains of 202 former football players has confi rmed what many feared in life — evidence of chronic traumatic encephalop- athy, or CTE, a devastat- ing disease in nearly all the samples, from ath- letes in the NFL, college and even high school. Stabler is among the cases previously reported. Pendleton all-stars rally to advance East Oregonian The Pendleton 11/12-year-old all-star softball team came to bat in its half of the fi fth inning staring at 2-0 defi cit, with its opponent Hawaii just six outs away from advancing in the Little League Softball West Regional and Pendleton six outs from heading back to Eastern Oregon. Through the fi rst four innings, Team Oregon had managed just one hit and squeezed on four baserunners, but not able to grind out any scoring chances. But in its half of the fi fth, Oregon found some two out magic. The No. 6 seed Oregon rattled off six hits and scored six runs in the fi fth to stun No. 3 Hawaii with a 6-2 victory at Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, California, advancing Oregon into the regional semifi nals. In the fi fth, Charlie Mae Franklin started the inning with a walk and Brielle Youncs followed with a single but then two straight outs put Oregon’s threat in danger. However, Youncs scored from second on a Hawaii error See SOFTBALL/2B AP Photo/File Brain disease CTE seen in most football players in large study By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer Former NFL tight end Frank Wy- check worries that concussions during his nine- year career have left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy and he plans to donate his brain to research. “Some people have heads made of concrete, and it doesn’t really affect some of those guys,” he said. “But CTE is real.” CHICAGO — Research on 202 former football players found evidence of a brain disease linked to repeated head blows in nearly all of them, from athletes in the National Football League, college and even high school. It’s the largest update on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a debilitating brain disease that can cause a range of symptoms including memory loss. The report doesn’t confi rm that the condition is common in all football players; it refl ects high occurrence in samples at a Boston brain bank that studies CTE. Many donors or their families contributed because of the players’ repeated concussions and troubling symptoms before they See BRAIN/3B AP Photo/Roberto Borea WNBA Sparks top Storm in low-scoring affair Associated Press Photo courtesy of Jeanine Youncs Team Oregon (Pendleton) 11/12 all-star Brielle Youncs crosses the plate during Or- egon’s 6-2 win over Hawaii at the Little League Softball West Regional on Tuesday in San Bernardino, California. LOS ANGELES — Candace Parker scored 14 of her 17 points in the fi rst half, Nneka Ogwumike had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Seattle Storm 68-60 on Tuesday night. Ogwumike hit a baseline jumper at the end of the shot clock to extend Los Angeles’ lead to Seattle 65-54 with 2:06 left and Seattle didn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way. Jantel Lavender added 14 points 60 for Los Angeles (15-6). Los Angeles Los Angeles started the second quarter on a 16-2 run for a 37-21 lead. But Seattle opened the third on a 17-4 run, capped by Noelle Quinn’s fast-break layup 68 to give the Storm their fi rst lead, 46-44, since 13-12. Breanna Stewart led Seattle (9-12) with 23 points and a career- high six blocks. Sue Bird moved past Lauren Jackson for the most fi eld goals in team history and she also became the eighth player in WNBA history with 600 steals. College Football ’Wrecking’ Nall leads inspired Beavers’ backfi eld Portland native aims to build on strong sophomore year By ANNE M. PETERSON AP Sports Writer AP Photo/Timothy J. Gonzalez, File In this Nov. 26, 2016 fi le photo, Oregon State running back dives over Oregon’s Danny Mattingly for a touch- down in the second half a game in Corvallis. CORVALLIS — Last time fans got a look at Oregon State’s Ryan Nall, he was bounding into the end zone against the rival Oregon Ducks. Four times. That 34-24 victory in last season’s fi nal game is still fueling the Beavers as they prepare to open fall camp Tuesday. “It was positive for us because we’re going in (to camp) knowing that we can compete,” Nall said. “We’re ready. This offseason was defi nitely a shift in attitude and momentum.” The victory in the Civil War snapped an eight-game losing streak for Oregon State in the series. Nall, then a sophomore who had been dogged by a foot injury, ran for 155 yards — and those four scores — against the Ducks. Afterward, fans stormed the fi eld at Reser Stadium and a few hoisted Nall on their shoulders to celebrate. His four TDs were the most for a Beaver in a single game since Jacquizz Rodgers ran for three and caught another against Washington in 2010. Steven Jackson had the last game with four rushing TDs in 2003. The Beavers fi nished 4-8 overall, a two-game improve- ment over the previous season, and won three Pac-12 games after going winless in the conference in 2015. Nall, a native Oregonian who played at Portland’s Central Catholic High School, fi nished last See BEAVERS/2B Sports shorts Dwyer traded in record MLS deal (AP) — Sporting Kansas City forward Dom Dwyer has been traded to Orlando City for what could be a MLS-record $1.6 million. Orlando traded $900,000 in guaranteed allocation money, plus more based on perfor- mance in the deal for Dwyer, who recently got his fi rst call-up for the U.S. national team after becoming a citizen. Dwyer was selected by Kansas City in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. He ranks second on the team with fi ve goals this season, and he has 57 Dwyer goals over 128 career games. He scored in his national team debut against Ghana this month. He also scored against Panama in the opening game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. MLS says the previous record was Orlando’s trade of Kevin Molino to Minnesota United for $650,000 in allocation money. “You’re getting everything you want. You get all the shots you want, you’re playing for a great coach who’s letting you go to work, when the game is on the line they’re coming to you, you’re playing on TV every week. To me, I don’t get it. Everybody has their own desires.“ — Chauncey Billups The former NBA guard on Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving demanding a trade out of Cleveland. Billups, in this interview with Altitude Sports 950 AM in Den- ver, said he knew of Irving’s request while interviewing for Cleveland’s GM position earlier this month. Trail Blazers ship Crabbe to Brooklyn in salary dump PORTLAND (AP) — The Portland Trail Blazers have traded Allen Crabbe to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for forward Andrew Nicholson. The deal, fi rst reported by ESPN, comes a year after the Nets offered Crabbe a four-year, $75 million deal as a restricted free agent. The Trail Blazers matched that offer. A 6-foot-6 wing, Crabbe averaged 10.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists last season in Portland. He hit 44.4 percent of his 3-pointers. Nicholson, who was traded from Wash- ington to the Nets at the deadline in February, averaged 2.6 points and 1.6 rebounds last season. Portland is expected to waive the 6-foot-9 power forward. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1859 — The fi rst inter- collegiate Regatta is held in Worcester, Mass., with Harvard beating Yale and Brown. 1996 — American swimmer Amy Van Dyken wins the 50-meter freestyle to become Atlanta’s fi rst quadruple gold medalist and the fi rst U.S. woman to win four in a single Olympics. 2005 — Greg Maddux records his 3,000th career strikeout against San Fran- cisco, striking out Omar Vizquel in the third inning of a 3-2, 11-inning victory for the Giants. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com