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