SPORTS
SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2018
Prep roundup
Hermiston
drops
second
game in
tournament
1B
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Pioneers fall short of sweep
Mac-Hi defeats
Stayton, falls to Rainier
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
M
Heppner baseball goes
1-1 against Vernonia,
Echo softball bounces
back to split day
East Oregonian
KEIZER — In Day 2 of the
Volcano Stadium Tourney at
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Stadium,
the Hermiston Bulldogs suffered
another loss.
Instead of the 15-3 defeat
Thursday, though, this loss would
come by a lone run scored in the
bottom of the seventh inning by
Aloha.
It was a pitchers dual with Herm-
iston being the only one team to get
one base with a hit. The efforts were
from a lone batter, Wyatt Noland.
Noland went 2-for-3 on the day,
and gave the Bulldogs (2-4) two
good opportunities to get on board.
In the fourth, Noland doubled
on a fly ball to center field but was
left stranded. Again in the seventh
as the leadoff hitter, Noland reached
first on a ground ball to left field but
Hermiston couldn’t capitalize.
This left the Warriors one final
chance in the bottom of the inning,
and they took it.
After batters at the bottom and
the top of Aloha’s lineup reached
base on errors, Travis Helm was
intentionally walked. The next
batter also got to first on a walk,
which advanced all runners giving
the Warriors the walk-off run.
Noland was given the loss after
coming in for relief of Brylee
Dufloth.
Hermiston will continue play
Saturday with a doubleheader that
will begin with a rematch against
Aloha at 11:30 a.m. and a game
versus McNary to follow.
———
Staff photos by Kathy Aney
McKenna Yenson, of Mac-Hi, waits as to see whether Stayton pitcher Kelsie Walker will snag a line
drive during Friday’s non-league game against Stayton. The ball bounced off the mitt and Yenson
made it home.
R H E
HERMISTON 000 000 0
0 2 3
ALOHA
000 000
1
1 0 0
(H) B. Dufloth, W. Noland (7). (A) J. Reyes.
2B: W. Noland (H).
HEPPNER 13-7, VERNONIA
11-22 — In Heppner, the Mustangs
split a doubleheader with Vernonia
on Friday.
Heppner took the first game by
a narrow 13-11, and the Vernonia
came back to take the second by a
whopping 22-7. The win/loss moves
the Mustangs to 4-6 overall as they
enter their final three non-league
matchups.
LEFT: Ashlyn Marly, of Mac-Hi, swings for the ball during Friday’s non-league game against Stay-
ton. RIGHT: Brittany Potts, of Mac-Hi, attempts to tag Stayton’s Emily Campbell during Friday’s
non-league game. Potts made it safely to second base.
See PIONEERS/4B
Nurkic, new father Lillard lead Blazers over Clippers
SOFTBALL
KENNEDY 14, ECHO 10 —
In Echo’s early road matchup at the
Union Spring Bash, the Cougars
battled back against the Kennedy
Trojans but fell short and dropped
the game 14-10.
Kennedy struck first in the
opening inning to take an early 1-0
lead. But in the top of the third,
Echo got on the board with two
runs — first off a home run from
Kendra Hart and the second from
a RBI single off the bat of Amber
Weems.
The brief 2-1 lead wouldn’t be
the first time the Cougars (2-2)
held an advantage over the Trojans
(3-2).
After Kennedy knocked in five
runs in the bottom of the third, Echo
See ROUNDUP/4B
ILTON-FREEWATER —
The Mac-Hi softball team
kicked off its annual spring
break tournament on Friday at
Yantis Park and the Pioneers ended
the day with mixed results. The
Pioneers began the day by gritting
out a 6-5 victory over Stayton before
ending the day with a marathon
against Rainier where the visiting
Columbians handed the Pioneers a
16-12 loss under the lights.
Against Stayton, the Pioneers
(5-2) wasted no time at all in getting
runs on the board against the Eagles
(1-4) as they took a 3-0 lead after
the first inning. Rachael Lyon led
off the game with a single and then
Ashlyn Marly and Graci Bullock
worked walks to load the bases with
zero outs. That brought Faith Kelly
to the plate, and Kelly unloaded a
double into the right-center field gap
to score Lyon and Marly. Jessica
Burks then had an RBI groundout
to score Bullock.
Stayton picked up a run in the
third inning, and then the Pioneers
added on in the top of the fourth.
Sevin Birdwell and McKenna
Yensen earned their way on base for
the Pioneers and then came across
to score on a pair of Stayton errors
to make it a 5-1 lead. However,
the Eagles got to Pioneer pitcher
McKenna Stallings in the bottom
half of the fourth as Stallings
walked three batters and recorded
an error to help the Eagles score
four runs to tie the game at 5-5.
The Pioneers then came right
back in the fifth inning with a leadoff
walk by Courtney Cain and two
batters later, Brittany Potts ripped a
single up the middle to bring home
the go-ahead run for a 6-5 Mac-Hi
lead. After the inning, Stallings was
lifted for the lefty-thrower Sydney
Earls after Stallings allowed five
runs on five hits with four strikeouts
and three walks in four innings in
the circle.
And the change to Earls in the
circle proved to be the right move
for Mac-Hi coach Nicole Christian,
as Earls struck out five batters and
allowed only two baserunners in
the final three frames to earn the
win.
Potts was the only Pioneer hitter
to record multiple hits against the
Eagles as she went 2-for-4 with
an RBI, while five other Pioneers
picked up one hit each and six
players scored a run.
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
AP Photo/Steve Dykes
Los Angeles Clippers guard Tyrone Wallace, right, drives to the
basket on Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, left, during
the first half of Friday’s game in Portland.
PORTLAND — Jusuf Nurkic
had 21 points and 12 rebounds,
new father Damian Lillard added
17 points and 11 assists, and the
Portland Trail Blazers held off the
Los Angeles Clippers 105-96 on
Friday night.
Rookie Zach Collins came off
the bench with a career-high 15
points for the Blazers, who were
hurt in the third quarter when Ed
Davis rolled his right ankle and left
the game.
The loss snapped a three-game
winning streak for the Clippers,
who were just outside the playoff
picture in the West with six games
left. Lou Williams led Los Angeles
with 23 points.
After trailing by as many as 23
points in the third quarter, the Clip-
pers got within 92-80 early in the
fourth, prompting Lillard to return to
the game. Los Angeles narrowed the
gap again to 102-94 with just under
a minute left but Pat Connaughton
answered for the Blazers with a
3-pointer on the other end.
Portland remains in third place
in the West, coming off a 2-1 road
trip that ended with a 108-103 loss
at Memphis on Wednesday night.
But the Blazers played that game
without Lillard, who was awaiting
the birth of his first child. Damian
Lillard Jr. was born Thursday
morning.
“I don’t think there’s any way
to describe it. It’s a different level,
See BLAZERS/4B
Sports shorts
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
Eubanks declares for
NBA draft, hires agent
HEAVEN SENT
Oregon State junior forward Drew
Eubanks has announced he will
declare for the NBA draft and hire an
agent, ending his college career.
Eubanks, a 6-foot-10 big
man from Troutdale, made the
announcement through Oregon
State on Friday.
Eubanks averaged 13.2 points
and 6.8 rebounds this past season
while starting all 32 games. He
finishes his OSU career as one of
the school’s all-time leading shot-
blockers. He’s third on the career
blocks list with 163 and fourth in field
goal percentage at .598.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) —
Who needs “One Shining
Moment” when you’ve got
Sister Jean? The 98-year-old
nun who has become the
face of this most-inspiring
NCAA Tournament held court
on Good Friday in one of the
best-attended news confer-
ences ever at the Final Four.
Hundreds of reporters
and cameramen jammed in,
elbow-to-elbow, in an inter-
view room that would normally
draw two dozen journalists for
a player.
1968 — The American League’s
new franchise in Seattle chooses
Pilots as its nickname.
1975 — UCLA beats Kentucky
92-85 for its 10th NCAA basketball
title under head coach John Wooden.
Wooden finishes with a 620-147
career record after announcing his
retirement two days earlier.
1995 — Major league baseball
players end their strike when
Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor of
U.S. District Court in Manhattan
rules against the owners in the labor
dispute.
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