SPORTS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017
1B
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FARM-CITY PRO RODEO
Taruscio
shines in
hometown
Stanfi eld native top bulldogger
for second performance
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Travis Taruscio has competed
professionally in rodeo for many years now, and he
is more than used to the weekly grind of traveling
to compete.
However his commute to work on Thursday
evening is no doubt the shortest trip he makes all
year, as the Stanfi eld resident had a fi ve minute
drive from home to compete at the 30th Farm-City
Pro Rodeo. And the hometown boy gave his friends,
family, and hometown fans something to stand up
and applaud for, as the steer wrestler dazzled the
arena with a time of 4.1
seconds to win the night
“It’s a small
and the $100 bonus.
town in the
“It
really
feels
great,” Taruscio said
middle of
of competing at his
hometown rodeo. “To see nowhere, but
friends and family in the
stands when they don’t it’s dang sure
get to see you compete
a big-time
all year and then you get
to perform like that when
rodeo.”
they’re around is great.”
Taruscio set the bar — Tilden Hooper,
Carthage, Texas
pretty high for the night,
as he was the event’s
fi rst competitor to dash across the dirt. He held off
Hemphill, Texas’ Heath Thomas who fi nished at 4.2
seconds and Namou, Louisiana’s Rowdy Parrott
fi nished third with 4.9 seconds. The win also gave
Taruscio another $500 bonus and a memorial knife
for the Gray Ribbon Award, given in the memory
of late Farm-City board member Darrell Sallee.
“Darrell was a good guy and always nice to me
so it means a lot to take this home,” Taruscio said.
Barrel racer Kimmie Wall may call Utah home,
but Eastern Oregon has treated her well over the
last few years including in 2016 when she took
home the Farm-City barrel racing championship.
She rolled into town to compete on Thursday and
did not disappoint. Riding her nine-year-old mare
named Foxy, Wall sped around all there barrels in a
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Roger Nonella, of Redmond, ropes his calf in 10.4 seconds Thursday night at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston to win
tie-down roping.
See RODEO/2B
MLB
Prep Football
Three-run double in ninth sinks Mariners High schooler
By TIM BOOTH
AP Sports Writer
SEATTLE — Mike Trout
looped a three-run double just
inside the left-fi eld line with two
outs in the ninth
inning, and the
Los Angeles
Angels cooled
Seattle
off the Seattle
Mariners with
a 6-3 victory on
Thursday night.
Trout’s
bases-clearing
hit off Seattle Los Angeles
closer Edwin
Diaz
(2-5)
came after the
Mariners staged a three-run rally
of their own in the eighth inning
to tie the game at 3-all. Diaz
had major control problems in
the ninth, walking three batters,
including Cameron Maybin on
a 3-2 pitch to bring Trout to the
plate. The reigning MVP pulled
a 1-1 breaking ball and just kept
it fair.
3
6
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout swings for a three-run dou-
ble against the Seattle Mariners during the ninth inning of a
baseball game Thursday in Seattle.
The surging Mariners were
coming off a 6-3 road trip to move
into the second wild-card spot in
the American League. Along with
the ninth-inning problems, the
Mariners saw ace James Paxton
leave in the seventh inning with a
strained left pectoral muscle.
Seattle used the long ball to
rally in the eighth inning. Jean
Segura hit his seventh home run
of the season against Angels
reliever Bud Norris, and the duo
of Robinson Cano and Nelson
Cruz continued to come through
for the Mariners. Cano drove a
two-out double into the left-center
fi eld gap off Norris (2-5) and Cruz
followed with his 27th homer of
the season and fi fth in the past fi ve
games to pull Seattle even.
Cam Bedrosian pitched the
ninth for his fourth save.
The Angels got a brilliant
starting performance from Tyler
Skaggs, who pitched shutout ball
into the seventh. Skaggs allowed
fi ve hits and struck out fi ve in his
second start since coming off the
disabled list.
C.J. Cron hit a solo homer in
the second inning and Andrelton
Simmons added a two-run shot
in the fourth, both off of Paxton.
It was the fi rst homers allowed
by Paxton since June 27 against
Philadelphia and the fi rst time
he allowed multiple homers in a
game since June 1, 2016.
Paxton had tied a franchise
record by winning his previous
seven starts dating to July 2, when
he beat the Angels. But he was not
sharp in his attempt at No. 8 and
could be headed to the disabled list
for the second time this season.
dies when log
falls on him in
football drill
Team was doing U.S. Navy
SEALs conditioning drill
By FRANK ELTMAN &
KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press
FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. — A high
school football player performing a
drill used by the U.S. Navy SEALs for
conditioning was killed Thursday when
the log he and teammates were carrying
fatally struck him in the head, police
said.
Joshua Mileto, 16, was taking part
in a preseason exercise camp with the
Sachem East High School football team
when the accident occurred at the school
See FOOTBALL/2B
Sports shorts
La Grande litle league team moves
on to NW Regional title game
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Only one
game now stands between the La Grande
11/12 little league team and a trip to Williams-
port, Pennsylvania and the Little
League World Series.
Playing at the Northwest
Regional on Thursday, La Grande
(Oregon) defeated Washington
(Walla Walla) 8-4 to remain
unbeaten in the tournament. The win came
on the heels of a 3-2 walk-off victory against
Montana on Monday night.
The championship game is scheduled
for Saturday at Noon and will be televised
on ESPN as well as WatchESPN.com. La
Grande will play the winner of Montana and
Washington (Walla Walla), who play Friday at
Noon on ESPN.
“For me, I believe that Dale
Jr. has had a big part in
kind of stunting the growth
of NASCAR because he’s
got these legions of fans
and this huge outreach
of being able to reach ...
but he’s won nine races
in 10 years at Hendrick
Motorsports and hasn’t
been able to reach outside
of that.“
— Kevin Harvick
NASCAR driver on his weekly radio
show on SiriusXM’s NASCAR chan-
nel added that other league’s such as
NBA and NFL are successful because
the best players are the most popular.
US men’s soccer team gets
boost in latest FIFA rankings
ZURICH (AP) — The United States
climbed nine spots to 26th in the FIFA rankings
after winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The U.S. had dropped
12 places to 35th in the July
rankings, one above the Amer-
icans’ low in July and August
2012. Much of that drop was
attributable to a devaluation of
points from last year’s Copa America.
Brazil regained the top spot Thursday after
a one-month absence, replacing World Cup
champion Germany.
Brazil hasn’t played since June, while
Germany was last in action when beat Chile
on July 2 in the Confederations Cup fi nal. The
rankings are based on results over a four-year
period.
Argentina remained third. Switzerland rose
to fourth and Poland moved to fi fth.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1970 — Philadelphia
Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning
beats the Houston Astros 6-5
to become the fi rst pitcher to
win 100 games in both leagues
since Cy Young.
2012 — Candace Parker
scores 21 points and the
heavily
favored
U.S.
women’s basketball team
wins a fi fth straight Olympic
gold medal with an 86-50
victory over France. The win
is the latest in an unmatched
run for the Americans in the
past 16 years. The U.S. has
won 41 consecutive games
in the Olympic competition
since taking the bronze
medal in 1992.
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