OSAA 5A SOFTBALL
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 3B
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
The Pendleton Bucks pose for a photo with their first place trophy after defeating Putnam 7-0 in the 5A softball state championship game on Saturday in Corvallis.
CHAMPS: Pendleton wins third state title
Continued from 1B
“She’s just one of the
most fierce competitors and
toughest players mentally
that I’ve ever coached, guys
or girls,” Cary said. “She
just will outwork you and
she doesn’t get rattled. She’s
just an unbelievable compet-
itor and I can’t say enough
about her.”
The Pendleton right-
hander was able to settle in
with help from her offense,
which has been the case all
season.
Junior Aspen Garton
sparked the team in the sec-
ond inning as she took a cut
at a 0-1 pitch on the out-
side corner — which is
where she loves pitches, she
said — and launched it up
into the wind and over the
right field fence for a lead-
off home run. When Garton
rounded third base, she came
home to her teammates sur-
rounding home plate wear-
ing paper cone party hat
and leis, a look Garton said
was a last-minute decision
amongst the team to try and
keep the mood light.
But Garton’s homer was
only the start for the Buck-
aroos’ offense. Pendle-
ton loaded the bases in the
third inning and capitalized
on a pair of Putnam errors
to bump the lead to 3-0 and
kept pressure on Putnam’s
talented lefty Maddie Mayer
for the remainder of the
game.
“Every game we have
something like that, some
type of hit that just gets us
fired up and gets us going
and we’re an amazing hit-
ting team,” Richards said.
“And just something like
that to break open the gates
and get us hitting like we can
and that’s huge for our team.
And that showed them (Put-
nam) what we can do, we
came after them after that.”
Perhaps the best inning
Pendleton’s Lauren Richards throws from the pitching circle in the Bucks’ 7-0 win against Putnam in Corvallis.
Pendleton’s Aspen Garton fields a ground ball the in
the 5A state championship game in Corvallis.
Pendleton’s Kirah McGlothan connects for a single in
the Bucks’ 7-0 win against Putnam on Saturday.
for Richards in the circle
came in the fourth. Putnam
(21-6) recorded three singles
in the frame to load the bases
with no outs, threatening to
get right back in the game.
But Richards came right
after the Kingsmen’s hitters
pitch at a time and knew my
defense had me behind me.”
Then, the Buckaroos put
the finishing touches on the
game in the sixth. With two
outs and runners at second
and third, Richards turned
on a pitch from Mayer and
to induce an easy groundout
and then two strikeouts to
escape the inning unscathed.
“I just stuck to what I
was doing the whole game,”
Richards said. “I was try-
ing to hit my spots as best
I could and focus on one
singled into left, scoring
both. Then Kalan McGlo-
than and Alexi Brehaut —
both of whom went 2-for-4
on the day — followed with
RBI hits to push Pendleton’s
lead to 7-0.
“That bottom of sixth
was definitely the excla-
mation point on the whole
thing right there,” Cary said.
“We could go out there and
relax and try to get the last
three outs of the game with-
out being too tight. So some
breathing room is always
nice to have in that last
inning.”
Richards then set the first
two batters in the seventh
down easily with a pop fly
out and a strikeout. With the
Buckaroo fans cheering the
team from the grandstands,
Richards induced a ground-
out from Putnam’s leadoff
hitter Mikayla Schweins-
berg to Garton, who fielded
cleanly and threw to Brehaut
at first for the title-clinching
out, leading the team to cel-
ebrate with each other with
one giant hug in the circle.
“I just thought to myself
I have to catch this ball!,”
Brehaut joked. “And if I
don’t catch this ball it’s
going to be so bad.”
McGlothan, like most of
the Buckaroos at that point,
impatiently watched the
final out from her spot at
third base and had a “Did
that just happen? Is this
really it?” moment. It did
and the Buckaroos are state
champions.
“It’s like the stars liter-
ally aligned,” McGlothan
said. “I’ve never played
with a better group of soft-
ball girls ever, we had so
much good chemistry and
this is by far the most fun,
best season I’ve ever had.
It’s awesome.”
—————
5A FINAL
R H E
RP
000 000
0 — 0 5 4
PHS
012 004 X — 7 10 0
(RP) M. Mayer and G. Vadelund. (P) L.
Richards and K. Solomon. W — Richards,
L — Mayer.
2B — A. Brehaut 2 (PHS). HR — A.
Garton (PHS).
————
Contact Eric at esinger@
eastoregonian.com or 541-
966-0839. Follow him on
Twitter @ByEricSinger.
SENIORS: Have day to remember
Continued from 1B
Pendleton seniors, from left, Lauren Richards, Kalan McGlothan, Rylee Gentner and
Alexi Brehaut pose for photos after a brief graduation ceremony Saturday in Corvallis.
the championship game in
Corvallis.
“It’s much better than
walking,” McGlothan joked.
“This is crazy special.”
It’s a moment that Rich-
ards and Gentner both said
they had been dreaming
about since they watched
Pendleton seniors graduate
on the field after the 2015
championship game when
the duo were freshmen.
“When I saw the seniors
graduate (here) my fresh-
man year I knew I was going
to make it happen and I was
going to graduate from high
school on the Oregon State
field,” Richards said. “It’s
been a dream of mine even
before high school. All of us
seniors didn’t want to grad-
uate back at home, we were
going to make it happen and
come to the Oregon State
field.”
It was a special ending
to the high school careers
for the four, who helped
the Buckaroos program to
a 99-20 overall record and
now a state championship in
their four-year careers. The
seniors have also all earned
the chance to play colle-
giate athletics as well. Bre-
haut will play softball at
Western Oregon University,
Gentner will play both soft-
ball and volleyball at Walla
Walla Community College,
McGlothan will play basket-
ball at Chemeketa Commu-
nity College and Richards
will play softball at Clare-
mont McKenna College.
“I’m in my gown and
softball gear,” McGlothan
said. “This is just crazy.”
————
Contact Eric at esinger@
eastoregonian.com or 541-
966-0839. Follow him on
Twitter @ByEricSinger.