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Thursday, May 23, 2019
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5A STATE PLAYOFFS
Bucks rally to quarterfinals
Pendleton softball,
baseball teams claim
round one of 5a state
tournament
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
Thurston tried, but they could
hardly keep Kirah McGlothan’s
bat silent on Wednesday.
The Bucks second baseman hit
a two-rBI double and a three-run
dinger mid-game to help bury the
visiting Colts for a 12-7 victory in
round one of the 5a softball state
playoffs.
Before McGlothan brought the
firepower, the Bucks were grasp-
ing to a 1-0 advantage for two
innings.
“It changed our mojo a little
bit,” McGlothan said of her home
run. “as soon as anyone hits a
home run, everyone on the team
gets excited.”
The Bucks, ranked fifth in the
5a division, got on the board in the
bottom of the second inning when
sam spriet sent a 3-2 pitch over the
center field fence for a solo homer.
after a runless third inning,
spriet doubled and scored again
on Carissa Coooley’s sacrifice fly
on the next at-bat. McGlothan dou-
bled and reached third on an error,
driving in two runs for a 4-0 lead.
“My first couple of at-bats
weren’t very good,” McGlothan
admitted, “but sami’s homer got
us going.”
Freshman sauren Garton held
strong in the circle, collecting five
strikeouts to keep the Colts without
a run for the opening four innings.
Thurston couldn’t manage a
base hit until the top of the fourth,
when Olivia Jegtvig singled. she
would steal second and take third
on a sacrifice bunt with just one
out on the board, but the Bucks
knocked down the last two outs to
strand her.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Sami Spriet, of Pendleton, bumps fists with head coach Tim Cary after hit-
ting a home run during Wednesday’s state playoff game against Thurston.
“They’re a never-say-die team,”
Pendleton coach Tim Cary said of
Thurston. “They certainly weren’t
going to give up, and they showed
that with their bunts. They made it
tough for us to get our outs.”
The Colts swiftly put up three
runs with harmony stevens’
three-run homer in the top of the
fifth, narrowing the gap that the
Bucks had opened.
Pendleton was quick to rem-
edy the issue — Josie Wilson hit
a two-rBI double in the bottom of
the inning, and Elli Nirschl drove a
runner home on her single during
the next at-bat.
With Wilson and Nirschl on
base and in scoring position,
McGlothan homered over left field
on a 1-2 count to round out the sev-
en-run inning.
“That was gigantic,” Cary said.
“That opened the game up.”
The Bucks wouldn’t score
another run for the remainder of
the game, but no matter. They had
already put up enough distance to
survive four more Colts runs, and
punch their ticket to Friday’s state
quarterfinals.
McGlothan’s 2-for-4 perfor-
mance at the plate brought in one
run and five RBIs to lead Pendle-
ton’s offense. spriet went 3-for-4
with three runs and an rBI, and
Nirschl hit 2-for-4 with two runs
and a pair of runners driven in.
“you can never overlook any-
one,” McGlothan said. “you could
be playing a No. 20 team who hap-
pens to have a really good game,
while you have a bad one.”
On Friday, the Bucks will hit
the road to West albany for the 5a
quarterfinals.
“We still have some things
to clean up, but we’ll be ready to
roll on Friday,” Cary said. “We’re
going to give ‘em heck.”
Baseball
When the Bucks were down
3-2 in the bottom of the seventh
inning on Wednesday’s state play-
off game, Ty Beers knew it was a
live-or-die situation.
The sophomore first baseman
had just singled to score Gabe
umbarger and tie with the visiting
Wilsonville Wildcats. he then took
advantage of three critical Wilson-
ville errors to clinch a 4-3 victory.
“There was no room to hes-
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Ryan Stahl, of Pendleton, pitches during Wednesday’s state playoff game
against the Wilsonville Wildcats.
itate,” Beers said. “I just had to
make the decision and go.”
Pendleton held a 2-0 lead until
the top of the fifth, when Wilson-
ville’s Cole Kleckner singled to
right field and drove in two runs to
even things out.
Kleckner drove another runner
home in the top of the seventh to
pull ahead.
“Wilsonville has a quality pro-
gram,” Pendleton coach TJ hague-
wood said. “They do every year.
any team in the playoffs is going
to be good. you have to play with
your emotions under control in
games like this. during the play-
offs, emotions are running high.”
after umbarger scored for the
game’s second tie, Beers took sec-
ond on a wild pitch, and stole third
on the following at-bat. he scored
on an error at third base to slip past
Wilsonville once and for all.
“This was a team win,” hague-
wood said. “We had a lot of guys
doing great things. We executed
beautifully.”
Intermountain
Conference
Pitcher of the year ryan stahl
may have only benched two Wil-
sonville batters, but scattered just
three runs across six innings on
the mound.
“Wilsonville is a tough team,”
stahl said. “They know the game
really well; we just played better. It
was exciting to see kids step up in
tough situations like this.”
On Friday, Pendleton will travel
to Crescent Valley for a 5a state
quarterfinals contest. The Raid-
ers are coming off a 10-2 win over
Crook County.
CLASS 3A PLAYOFFS
Taft knocks Irrigon out in the first round
Knights finish the
season with a 20-5
record
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
One bad inning derailed Irri-
gon’s season Wednesday.
The Knights gave up five runs
in the top of the fifth inning as Taft
rallied for a 5-3 victory over Irri-
gon in the first round of the 3A state
baseball playoffs at henrichs Field.
“I’m proud of them no matter
what,” Irrigon coach randy hen-
richs said. “I just want them to
walk away with their heads up. I
hope they know this isn’t the end of
the world.”
The Tigers (17-10) move into the
quarterfinals, where they will face
santiam Christian on Friday.
“We just had to stay with it,”
Taft coach Matt hilgers said of his
team’s early deficit. “We knew we
would break through and do what
needed to be done.”
The Knights (20-5) opened the
scoring in the first inning as Mat-
thew Moreno scored on a Zack
henrichs’ double.
Irrigon added two more runs
in the bottom of the third. Moreno
scored on an rBI single by Keith
Fleming, while Fleming was sent
across the plate on a Lino Covar-
rubia double down the third-base
line.
While the Knights were putting
runs on the board, Zack henrichs
was keeping the Tigers at bay.
he allowed two hits and three
base runners over the course of
three innings, striking out five.
henrichs reached 42 pitches
at the end of three innings, and if
the Knights needed him Friday, he
could not go past 45.
Moreno came on in the fourth
and promptly sat down all three
Taft lead.
“Matthew came in and did
good,” coach henrichs said. “I feel
for him; he’s such a competitor.
he came in and did well the one
inning, then lost control.”
“I’M PROUD OF THEM
NO MATTER WHAT.”
Irrigon coach Randy Henrichs
batters he faced.
The fifth inning was differ-
ent story. Moreno struggled with
his control, walking two to start
the inning. Of the six batters he
faced, four scored before henrichs
went back to the mound.
a misplayed ball allowed
one more run to score for a 5-3
henrichs, who has signed to
play at Blue Mountain, faced just
seven batters over the next two
innings, keeping the Tigers from
increasing their lead.
“he threw well,” hilgers
said of henrichs. “he’s tough
to hit. I’m glad they took him
out. By the time they put him
back in, we had our runs, and I’m
glad we did.”
The Knights had success against
Taft starter Eli deMello, but after
he was pulled in the middle of the
fourth, Irrigon had a hard time
against left-handed reliever Bleiz
Kimbrough, who did not give up a
hit.
“That’s the first lefty we have
seen all year,” coach henrichs said.
“It’s difficult to adjust to. They
played their tails off, and so did
we.”
despite the loss, Zack henrichs
said there is much to celebrate.
“It was a fun season,” he said.
“We had the best record in school
history, we were league champs
and district champs. We would
have liked to walk away with
a (championship) ring, but it is
what it is.”
rangers complete 3-game sweep of slumping Mariners
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Baseball Writer
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Marco Gonzales throws to the Tex-
as Rangers in the first inning of a baseball game in Arlington, Texas, on
Wednesday.
arLINGTON,
Texas
—
hunter Pence homered, adrian
sampson had another impressive
long outing for a victory after not
starting, and the Texas rangers
beat the slumping seattle Mar-
iners 2-1 on Wednesday to com-
plete a three-game sweep.
The Mariners have lost 27 of 37
games to fall to the bottom of the
aL West standings since starting
the season 13-2.
seattle lefty Marco Gonzalez
(5-4) limited the rangers to one
earned run over seven innings, but
dropped to 0-4 with a 4.56 Era in
five starts in May. He was 5-0 after
his first seven starts this season.
Sampson (2-3) went 5⅓ innings
and gave up one earned run after
the rangers used a reliever to
start the game, the same as the
right-hander did when he got his
first big league victory in his last
appearance last Friday against st.
Louis.
Jesse Chavez got the first five
outs against the Mariners.
shawn Kelley worked the ninth
for his fourth save in five chances,
his second in less than 24 hours
since coming off the injured list
following the removal of two
lumps from his throat that were
determined to be benign.
In his five actual starts this sea-
son, sampson is 0-2 with a 7.66
Era and hasn’t gone more than
five innings. Pitching in relief, he
is 2-1 with a 1.48 Era.
Pence put the rangers up 2-0 in
the sixth with his solo homer, his
10th of the season.
Texas got an unearned run in
the first when Pence reached on
an error by first baseman Edwin
Encarnación and scored on a dou-
ble by Nomar Mazara.
Jay Bruce had a double and
scored on J.P. Crawford’s single in
the seattle seventh.
UP NEXT
Mariners: seattle will be in
Oakland on Friday night for the
opener of a weekend series against
the a’s.
Rangers: Texas starts a series
Friday night at the Los angeles
angels.