SPORTS
SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2018
Seattle vs. Detroit
was postponed
1B
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SOFTBALL
Prep roundup
Dawgs stun Bucks
District
champs
crowned at
Athena
East Oregonian
this season, settling into the
No. 3 spot in the batting order.
The Heppner boys and Weston-McE-
wen girls track and field teams captured
district championships on Friday after-
noon at Weston-McEwen High School.
Qualifying for the state champi-
onships for the Heppner boys include
Hunter Nichols in the 400 meters (second
place, 53.07 seconds), 1500 meters (first,
4:21.10) and 3000 meters (first, 9:47.56);
Trevor Antonucci in the 1500 meters
(second, 4:23.19) and 3000 meters (sec-
ond, 9:50.81); Jake Wallace in the 110
meter hurdles (first, 18.00); Derek How-
ard in shot put (first, 45-02), discus (first,
120-02), and javelin (second, 131-06);
Alex Lindsay in high jump (5-08), long
jump (first, 18-02.75), and triple jump
(first, 39-00.75) and Jayden Wilson in
the long jump (second, 18-02); and the
4x400 relay team of Mason Lehman,
Lindsay, Wilson and Nichols. On the
girls side Madelyn Nichols made it in the
1500 meters (5:35.46) and 3000 meters
(12:24.78), and Makayla Silvia in high
jump (4-04).
The district champion TigerScot girls
secured 12 qualifying spots, including
Keree Graves in the 100 meters (second,
13.84); Katie Vescio in the 800 meters
(first, 2:31.78) and pole vault (first,
9-01); Maddi Muilenburg in shot put
(first, 30-00.75), javelin (125-11) and tri-
ple jump (first, 29-03.75); Tristin Gonza-
lez in triple jump (28-10.50); Bryce Thul
in 300 meter hurdles (second, 51.03)
and long jump (second, 15-03.25); Ellie
Scheibner in long jump (first, 16-01.75);
and both the 4x100 relay team (Graves,
Vescio, Thul, Scheibner) and 4x400 relay
team (Graves, Gonzalez, Vescio, Scheib-
ner) after two first place finishes.
For the Weston-McEwen boys was
Jacob Speed in the 100 meters (first,
11.46), 200 meters (23.31) and 400
meters (first, 51.61); Kelen McGill in
the 100 meters (second, 11.74) and 200
meters (second, 24.04); Blair Rudolph in
the 800 meters (second, 2:12.41); Cody
Caldwell in shot put (40-09.25) and dis-
cus (119-09); Khai Robertson in tri-
ple jump (38.00.75) and the 4x100 relay
team of Hadden Ball, Robertson, McGill
and Speed (first, 45.01).
Pilot Rock’s Abby Rigby qualified in
the 100 (first, 13.34), 200 (first, 27.26),
and the 400 (first, 1:01.00), Siobhan Hol-
man in the 100 hurdles (first, 17.76) and
300 hurdles (first, 50.69), Rylee Bray in
the high jump (4-06), Riley Waggoner in
boys 800 (2:12.25), Saber Harp in both
boys 110 hurdles (18.80) and 300 hurdles
See SOFTBALL/3B
See ROUNDUP/2B
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton’s Rylee Gentner tags Sydney Stefani, of Hermiston, during Friday’s season finale.
Hermiston snaps
rivalry skid on
Noland’s walk-off
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Bailee
Noland could feel the nerves
running through her body as she
stepped to the plate in the bot-
tom of the seventh inning.
With two outs and her Herm-
iston team trailing 4-3 to its rival
Pendleton, Noland, a sopho-
more, glanced at the diamond
to see the tying run standing on
third base and the winning run at
second base. She stepped in the
box to face Pendleton’s all-state
pitcher Lauren Richards, with a
great amount of pressure riding
on her bat.
After watching a first-pitch
fastball sail down the middle of
the plate, Noland locked in on
the next pitch. She then unloaded
a big swing and thumped the ball
back up the middle, skipping just
under the glove of Richards and
rolling into the outfield. After
rounding first base, Noland gave
a big fist pump as she watched
Kalei Smith and Sydney Ste-
fani come across to score to give
Hermiston a 5-4 walk-off vic-
tory — its first win over Pendle-
ton since May 8, 2012, a span of
24 consecutive games.
“I’m so choked up right now,
it’s so awesome,” said Noland,
who was in elementary school
during Hermiston’s previous
victory over Pendleton. “I’m
just excited that our team, like
all of us pulled together and we
played with more heart than any-
thing. And when Sydney crossed
the plate, my whole heart just
dropped. And then my team was
running after me and I just knew
that we finally did it. We beat
Pendleton.”
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton catcher Kila Solomon and pitcher Lauren Richards
confer after a frustrating series of pitches during Friday’s sea-
son finale against Hermiston.
Noland has been one of the
top hitters and run producers for
the Bulldogs (15-9 overall, 6-6
Columbia River Conference)
BASEBALL
Bucks top Dawgs for the last time
In Hermiston, Pendleton
hands the Bulldogs a 10-6
loss to close out rivalry
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — In their last four
losses, the Hermiston Bulldogs scored
Pendleton’s Tucker Zander looks up for the call after a combined eight runs — all of which
tagging Hermiston’s Trevor Wagner out at second base came in the fifth inning or later.
The last time Hermiston tallied a
in the Bucks’ 10-6 win against the Bulldogs in Herm-
win was April 27 in Pendleton. The 3-2
iston.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
victory over the Buckaroos was Pend-
leton’s second league loss of the sea-
son, and Friday the two teams squared
off for the last time.
This time, the runs came early.
Hermiston took a 6-3 lead after two
innings, and had momentum on its side
as the Bulldogs tried to split the season
series with their cross-county rival. But
the unfortunate departure of starting
pitcher Lukas Tolan tilted the scales in
Pendleton’s favor and the Bucks came
away with a 10-6 win to bring the Bull-
dogs’ season to a close.
Despite giving up four runs on six
hits, Tolan showed his power on the
bump with two big strikeouts to stop the
bleeding in the first inning and another
strikeout to help escape the second.
“He dominated us the first time he
faced us,” Pendleton’s Shaw Jerome
said. “He’s got a little bit of a differ-
ent spin on the baseball. He’s a tough
pitcher to go against.”
After trying to chase down a foul ball
in the fourth, Tolan injured his plant-
See BASEBALL/3B
Sports shorts
LeBron undaunted by
Celtics mystique
(AP) — There haven’t been any
championship banners hoisted into
Boston’s hallowed rafters since
2008.
LeBron James won’t let go of
the rope.
Cleveland’s star has bounced
the Celtics from the playoffs four
times in the past seven years, and
James carries a six-game postsea-
son winning streak at Boston into
this year’s Eastern Conference
finals, which open Sunday at TD
Garden.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
Good isn’t good enough.
Coach of the Year gets fired.
(AP) — The regular season is irrelevant.
That’s the message the Toronto Raptors sent Fri-
day when they fired Dwane Casey, two days after
his now-former peers in the NBA said he did the best
coaching job in the league this season. Casey led the
Raptors to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference
this season, along with the second-best record in the
league. He even got to coach in the All-Star game.
Didn’t matter.
Swept in the playoffs, swept out of Toronto.
1909 — The Preakness Stakes is
held in Maryland after 16 runnings
in New York. As part of the celebra-
tion marking the return of the Preak-
ness, the colors of the race’s winner
were painted onto the ornamental
weathervane at Pimlico Racecourse
for the first time.
1970 — Ernie Banks hits his
500th career home run off Pat Jarvis
over Atlanta at Wrigley Field.
1974 — The Boston Celtics beat
the Milwaukee Bucks 102-87 to win
the NBA championship in seven.
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