SPORTS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017
1B
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PENDLETON
Bucks head to Redmond for fi rst road test
Pendleton hits the
road after four
straight home games
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton’s Nick Bower stares down Ridgeview’s
Tanner Stephan as he runs the ball in the Bucks’ 48-13
win against the Ravens on Friday in Pendleton.
PENDLETON — After having the
luxury of four straight home games to
begin the 2017 season, the Pendleton
Buckaroos are fi nally hitting the road.
Pendleton (2-2 overall, 1-1 5A
Special District 1) will make the
roughly eight-hour round-trip drive to
Central Oregon on Friday to continue
league play with a game against the
Redmond Panthers (0-4, 0-2). The
Football
Pendleton
Redmond
Buckaroos
Panthers
(2-2, 1-1)
(0-4, 0-2)
• Friday, 7 p.m.
• at Redmond High School
Panthers were a senior-heavy playoff
team last year that have played a
very tough schedule so far, losing to
Silverton (45-6), Bend (33-0) and
Mountain View (56-16) who are all
three top-10 ranked teams in Class 5A.
And with that, Pendleton knows that
the Panthers are better than their record
and playing in their home environment
will be a challenge.
“They’re a good team, no doubt,”
Pendleton quarterback Nick Bower
said. “They’re 0-4 but losses to top
teams in the state so the biggest thing
for us is don’t undermine them and we
have to play our absolute best.”
“We expect them to be a good foot-
ball team,” Pendleton head coach Erik
Davis added. “They played a tremen-
dously diffi cult preseason schedule,
so they’re battle-tested. They beat us
last year so we’re going to continue to
play that underdog role each and every
week and see if we can’t come out with
another win.”
It’s a crucial game for Pendleton in
the Buckaroos’ journey to the playoffs.
A win helps the Bucks keep pace with
the top half of Special District 1 while
See BUCKS/2B
HERMISTON
MLB
Mariners
fall to A’s
on walk-off
home run
Bulldogs come back home
Herm-
iston’s
Dayshawn
Neal
celebrates
after
intercept-
ing a pass
during a
non-con-
ference
game
against
Lewiston
(ID) on
Sept. 8 at
Kennison
Field.
After two
straight
road
games,
Hermiston
returns
home to
host Hood
River
Valley on
Friday
night.
By GIDEON RUBIN
Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — Mark Canha
hit a game-ending home run in the
ninth inning to lead the Oakland
Athletics past the Seattle Mariners 6-5
on Wednesday.
Canha’s fi fth homer this season
came on a 1-0 pitch
from Shae Simmons
(0-1).
Oakland avoided
a three-game sweep
Seattle
and snapped an eight-
game losing streak
against Seattle.
The A’s improved
to
15-10
in
Oakland
September, clinching
their fi rst winning
month since April of
2016. They won 15
games in a month for
the fi rst time since June 2015.
Matt Joyce tied an A’s record with
three doubles.
Blake Treinen (3-4) pitched a score-
less ninth, working around a one-out
double by rookie Mike Marjama.
The A’s led 5-3 going into the top of
the eighth, when Robinson Cano hit a
two-run homer off Chris Hatcher.
Cano’s 23rd homer was Seattle’s
second game-tying home run on the
day. The Mariners trailed 2-0 when
Nelson Cruz hit his team-leading 38th
homer, a two-run shot off Kendall
Graveman in the top of the fourth.
Graveman left the game with a 5-3
lead and was in line to win his fourth
straight decision. Oakland’s ace struck
out four and gave up three runs on
seven hits and one walk in six innings.
MARJAMA’S MILESTONE
Marjama made his fi rst career start
for Seattle. The 28-year-old was 2 for
4, collecting his fi rst major league hits.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: OF Guillermo Heredia
left the team and is expected to have
surgery to repair a right shoulder injury
he’s been playing with all year. Heredia,
who bats and throws left-handed, will
get a second opinion before having the
procedure performed by a specialist in
Miami, manager Scott Servais said.
UP NEXT
Mariners: LHP Marco Gonzales
(1-1, 5.51 ERA) will pitch Friday’s
series opener against the Angels in Los
Angeles. The 24-year-old rookie is 1-0
with a 2.25 ERA in his last four starts.
5
6
Hermiston hosts Hood River Valley after two weeks on road
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
—
After
dethroning Summit last Friday,
the Hermiston Bulldogs are dialed
in and focused on continuing their
style of play this week back home
at Kennison Field.
Hermiston welcomes Hood
River Valley, a team that was
winless in 2016 but is now hungry
for a playoff birth.
The Bulldogs (2-2 overall, 1-1
Football
Hermiston
Hood River
Bulldogs
Valley Eagles
(2-2, 1-1)
(2-1, 1-1)
• Friday, 7 p.m.
• At Kennison Field
Special District 1) have spent
the last two weeks on the road,
splitting the two games after
falling to the No. 2 Mountain
View Cougars on Sept. 15. As
they prepare to face the Eagles
(2-1, 1-1), that loss is well in the
past and Hermiston has fresh tape
to work off of that highlights a
near-perfect performance from
quarterback Andrew James.
The junior fi nally showed
what head coach David Faaeteete
has seen week in and week out at
practice. He fi nished 17-of-20 for
256 yards and three touchdowns
against Summit. James didn’t
throw a single interception and
kept his feet moving, racking up
84 rushing yards on 13 carries. It
was his best performance as play
caller since Hermiston’s 54-0 win
against Ridgeview last season.
“You know it’s there, you see
it at practice every day,” Faaeteete
said. “The game plan worked,
everything was there. We made
the right reads, he made great
reads on his feet, ran the ball
well, threw it well — just a great
execution.”
See BULLDOGS/2B
Sports shorts
Louisville places Pitino on unpaid
leave amid bribery investigation
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville has
placed coach Rick Pitino and athletic director
Tom Jurich on administrative leave amid a federal
bribery investigation.
The coach’s attorney, Steve
Spence, told the Courier-Journal
Wednesday that Louisville has
“effectively fi red” Pitino.
Pitino’s exit comes after the
school acknowledged on Tuesday
that the men’s program is part of a
Pitino
federal investigation into alleged
bribery of recruits. The 65-year-old
coach was not named in the indictment that
resulted in the arrest of 10 people including assis-
tants at other schools and an Adidas executive.
It is the latest black eye for the Cardinals
program. Pitino and Louisville are in the middle
of appealing NCAA sanctions following an
embarrassing sex scandal.
“I’ve been able to be lucky
enough to be with the same
organization. It means so
much to me, and I can’t
picture myself putting a
different uniform on ... I know
I am able to hang my hat at
the end of the day and say
I put everything I could into
this and I’ve experienced it all
and enjoyed every bit of it.”
— Matt Cain
The 33-year-old San Francisco
Giants pitcher announced he will
retire at the end of the season,
making one more start at home
on Saturday. Cain went 104-118
with a 3.69 ERA in 12 seasons.
Twins clinch 2nd AL Wild Card,
continue unexpected turnaround
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Minnesota Twins
became the fi rst team to make the playoffs after
losing at least 100 games the previous season,
clinching an AL wild-card berth
on Wednesday night when the
Los Angeles Angles lost 6-4 in 10
innings at Chicago.
The Twins couldn’t secure
their fi rst spot in the postseason
by themselves, losing 4-2 to the
Indians, but that hardly mattered for a team that
has overcome adversity and defi ed expectations.
They won only 59 games a year ago, and it
seemed as if the young Twins would be lucky
to be competitive when the season began. But
they got hot in August and haven’t looked back
in becoming the 13th team — and fi rst since the
2009 Seattle Mariners — to go from 100-plus
losses to a winning record the following season.
Minnesota will play at either Yankee Stadium
or Fenway Park in the wild-card game Tuesday.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1976 — Muhammad Ali
wins a unanimous 15-round
decision over Ken Norton
at Yankee Stadium in New
York to retain his world
heavyweight title.
1985 — Tight end Brian
Foster of Rhode Island
catches 18 passes for 327
yards to set an NCAA record
in a 32-27 loss Brown.
1997 — Wendy Ward
records the lowest total in
relation to par in the 47-year
history of the LPGA tour
for her fi rst victory. Ward’s
23-under 265 gives her a
two-shot victory in the Field-
crest Cannon Classic.
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sports@eastoregonian.com