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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2018)
SPORTS FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2018 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS OREGON STATE BASEBALL Abel named top freshman OSU pitcher earns national freshman of the year By BOB LUNDEBERG Albany Democrat Herald AP Photo/Nati Harnik Oregon State pitcher Kevin Abel (23) throws against Arkansas during the third inning of Game 3 of the NCAA College World Se- ries baseball finals. CORVALLIS — Seven days after throwing a two-hitter in the College World Series finals, Ore- gon State’s Kevin Abel was named national freshman of the year by D1Baseball.com Thursday morning. Abel led all Division I fresh- men with 108 strikeouts and fin- ished with a .181 batting average against in 81⅓ innings. He went 8-1 (23 appearances, seven starts) and compiled a 2.88 ERA. At the CWS, Abel finished 4-0 — the first four-game winner in CWS history — and struck out 23 in 21 innings with a 0.86 ERA. He was also electric at the Corval- lis Regional, throwing eight three- hit innings in a 12-0 victory over LSU. Abel retired 20 Arkansas bat- ters in a row to close Game 3 of the CWS finals, a 5-0 OSU victory that clinched the program’s third national title. He struck out 10 with two walks, throwing 129 pitches. “That might’ve been the best single pitching performance I’ve ever seen,” teammate Jake Mulhol- land said. “And that’s saying a lot because we are surrounded by the best pitchers in the country with Luke (Heimlich), (Bryce) Fehmel, Jake Thompson, up and down the bullpen. We’ve had some pretty incredible performances, and that might’ve been the best.” Fellow Pac-12 standouts Spen- cer Torkelson (first base) of Ari- zona State and Zach Pettway See ABEL/3B Legion baseball Hodgen roughed up in Spokane East Oregonian The 2018 Spokane American Legion Wood Bat Classic did not start as planned for Hodgen Distributing on Thursday, as it lost 10-2 to the Spokane Expos 19u and then was thumped 20-7 by the Prai- rie Phillies. Against the Expos, Hodgen Distrib- uting (18-10) managed only five hits in the game and did not score until the fifth inning. Trailing 7-0 at that point, Kyle Field started the inning with a walk and Ty Beers and Cooper Roberts each sin- gled to load the bases with only one out. Quinn Doherty drew a bases-loaded walk to get Hodgen on the board, but that’s all it would get as Ryan Stahl and Tanner Sweek both followed with strikeouts to strand the bases loaded. Then in the sixth, Curtis Simons dou- bled and advanced to third on a passed ball and then scored on a double play off the bat of Tucker Zander. After a three-hour break, Hodgen Dis- tributing was back on the field against Prairie and things started out well for the Pendleton team. It scored three times in the bottom of the first and three times in the third inning to hold a 6-4 lead. However, in the top of the fourth things went downhill fast for Hodgen. Prairie put together a 12-run fourth inning thanks to five Hodgen errors, four walks and four hits in the inning to take control of the game. Prairie then followed it up with a four- run fifth inning behind one walk, one hit- by-pitch and four more Hodgen errors to cruise to the win. In those two frames, eight errors came with two outs. Logan Weinke, Stahl, Sweek and Zan- der each finished with two-hit days, while Ty Beers, Cooper Roberts, Simons and Doherty all had one hit apiece. Hodgen aims to rebound on Friday when it plays the Medicine Hat Monarchs at 8 a.m. and then the Northern Lakes Mountaineers at 10:30 a.m. to wrap up pool play. Diamondjaxx drop a pair Just like their Senior Legion coun- terparts, the Junior Legion Pepsi Dia- mondjaxx had an 0-2 start to the Spokane Wood Bat Classic on Thursday with a 8-4 loss to Lewis & Clark and a 12-2 loss to Indians Red. The Diamondjaxx had a good start to the day against Lewis & Clark, where they scored twice in the first inning and twice in the third to hold an early lead. See LEGION/3B AP Photo/Stephen Brashear Seattle Mariners’ Chris Herrmann runs the bases after hitting a solo home run off Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Miguel Al- monte during the seventh inning of Thursday’s game in Seattle. Mariners top Halos Chris Hermann hits first homer with Seattle, M’s beat Angels 4-1 By TODD MILLES Associated Press SEATTLE — Chris Her- rmann hit his first home run for Seattle and Marco Gon- zales pitched six solid innings to lead the Mariners to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night. Gonzales (9-5) gave up five hits while striking out seven in a 102-pitch outing. The lone run he gave up was Kole Calhoun’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to tie the game at 1. In the fifth, Guillermo Heredia’s line drive over Jus- tin Upton’s head in left field for an RBI double gave Seat- tle the lead back at 2-1. In the seventh inning, Her- Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Edwin Diaz, left, and catch- er Chris Herrmann celebrate after a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday in Seattle. The Mari- ners won the game 4-1. rmann’s solo blast off reliever Miguel Almonte carried deep into the right-field bleachers. Dee Gordon tripled into the right-field corner with two outs, and Jean Segura greeted reliever Cam Bedrosian with a high-chopping RBI single to third baseman David Fletcher to extend Seattle’s lead to 4-1. Edwin Diaz struck out the side in the ninth to lock up his major league-leading 34th save. The Mariners have not lost a home series since May 6, when they dropped two of three games to the Angels. They are 6-0-3 during that span. Angels starter Jaime Bar- ria (5-5) allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings in the loss. HERNANDEZ BACK ‘BETTER’ Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez insists he feels much better before his sched- uled start Friday against Colo- rado than he did nearly a week ago. Hernandez tweaked his back during a workout in Baltimore. It tightened on him before his start Saturday against Kansas City - one in which he surrendered three earned runs before recording an out in a 6-4 victory. “There isn’t anything struc- turally wrong. It’s just tight,” Mariners manager Scott Ser- vais said. With the help of heat and ice packs, and more stretch- ing, Hernandez’s back has felt better this week. He even See MARINERS/3B Sports shorts Trail Blazers sign Nik Stauskas to 1-year deal (AP) — Nik Stauskas is offi- cially a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, after signing his one- year, $1.6 million contract. Portland will be Stauskas’ fourth team in his five NBA seasons, fol- lowing stops in Philadelphia, Sac- ramento and Brooklyn. He’s a career 35 percent 3-point shooter. “Nik is a versatile and talented perimeter player that will seam- lessly fit into our style of play,” Portland general manager Neil Olshey said. THIS DATE IN SPORTS ‘17 Wimbledon champ Muguruza ousted LONDON (AP) — Garbine Muguruza insisted she wasn’t thinking about attempting to col- lect a second consecutive Wim- bledon championship. She was adamant that she was not focusing on defending her title. Well, it seems safe to say she’ll really want to forget what hap- pened at the All England Club in 2018. Muguruza was stunned in the second round 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 by 47th-ranked Ali- son Van Uytvanck of Belgium on Thursday, the latest upset in a series of them at the grass-court major tournament. That’s become a familiar refrain for prominent women at this top- sy-turvy Wimbledon. Only two of the top eight seeded women are still in the field after four days of action. 1933 — The first major league All-Star game is played at Comis- key Park, Chicago. The American League beats the National League 4-2 on Babe Ruth’s two-run homer. 1957 — Althea Gibson becomes the first black to win a title at the All England Lawn Tennis Club by beating Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2 in the women’s singles title match. 1968 — Billie Jean King wins her third consecutive women’s sin- gles title at Wimbledon by beating Australia’s Judy Tegart 9-7, 7-5. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com
