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SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021
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B1
SURVIVING ROUGH WATERS
Pilot Rock
community
comes together
to repair ball
fi eld damaged
by fl ood
By ANNIE FOWLER
For the East Oregonian
P
ILOT ROCK — Play ball!
Those are the words baseball
and softball fans in Pilot Rock
hope to hear this spring after
spending the past several months repair-
ing the Pilot Rock Little League ﬁ eld after
a May 20, 2020, ﬂ ood destroyed the ﬁ eld.
“It has been a tough year,” Pilot Rock
Little League president Kris Thieme said.
“The water was raging across the ﬁ eld
and it was under water. It was dangerous.”
Heavy rains in May caused the East
Birch Creek to overﬂ ow, not only ﬂ ood-
ing the ball ﬁ eld but causing dam-
age throughout the small town south of
Pendleton.
The adjacent Pilot Rock High School
football ﬁ eld was spared, but the ball
ﬁ eld, shared by the Little League pro-
gram and the high school softball team,
suffered signiﬁ cant damage.
“We weren’t allowed down there
until mid-June,” Thieme said. “It was a
mess. First COVID hit, then this. It was
extremely overwhelming.”
The water from East Birch Creek tore
through part of the outﬁ eld, destroyed the
inﬁ eld and damaged the fence. The dug-
outs also will need to be replaced, and
a retaining wall will need to be added
behind home plate.
The batting cages, concession/
announcer building and a storage con-
tainer also had to be cleared of mud and
debris.
The ﬁ eld is on property owned by the
school district, but is maintained by the
Little League program. There was no
ﬂ ood insurance on the ﬁ eld.
With a big task at hand, the commu-
Kris Thieme/Contributed Photo
A group of boys help lay sod during a work party to repair the damaged Pilot Rock Little League ﬁ eld on Sept. 30, 2020. The ball ﬁ eld
was damaged by a ﬂ ood on May 20, 2020, when East Birch Creek burst its banks and ﬂ ooded the ﬁ eld and other portions of Pilot Rock.
nity rolled up its sleeves and got to work.
Many hands do good work
The Little League board, school
administrators and community members
devised a plan of action in June.
The Little League program would be
in charge of the cleanup and restoration
of the ﬁ eld, and the school district would
replace the fencing.
Without insurance to fund the project,
the League League board sought help. It
applied for and received a $2,500 grant
from Umatilla Electric Cooperative, and
received a matching grant from CoBank.
The board also received a $2,000 grant
from Cascade Natural Gas.
“Without those grants, we’d be in a
hole,” Thieme said.
Work began on the ﬁ eld on June 23.
The debris left behind by the ﬂ ood ﬁ lled
13 dump trucks.
Cody Thacker, of Thacker Contracting
LLC, loaned a mini excavator for the
work, and Jimmy Doherty, of Eastern
Oregon Waste Management, provided
a dump truck. McLaughlin Landscap-
ing and RDO Equipment also provided
key pieces of equipment, while commu-
nity members also lent a hand with heavy
equipment.
Once the ﬁ eld was cleared, Paul Roe
and Eric Snivley worked their magic to
bring the ﬁ eld back to life.
Roe, the Little League maintenance
manager for the past 18 years, had kept
one of the most meticulous ﬁ elds in the
area. He and Snivley put in countless
hours to grade and level the ﬁ eld with a
small John Deere tractor. They were able
to salvage most of the topsoil, saving the
program money.
“Those two put in thousands of hours of
their time to make this happen,” Thieme
said. “Without their knowledge and time,
I don’t know what we would have done.
It’s unbelievable what they did.”
McLaughlin Landscaping stepped in
to help ﬁ x the irrigation and underground
sprinkler system.
By the end of September, the ﬁ eld was
ready for sod, which was purchased from
Buttercreek Sod in Hermiston.
A work party that included Lit-
tle League board members and players,
community members and employees of
McLaughlin Landscaping installed the
inﬁ eld sod on Sept. 30. The school dis-
trict paid to reseed the outﬁ eld.
“If I wanted 500 people, they would
have shown up to help,” Thieme said.
“The kids helped and the community
came together to lend a hand. We appre-
ciate all the help we have received.”
There still is work to be done in regards
to the dugouts and fencing, but the Little
League program and school district count
See Flood, Page B2
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
NFL races go down to the wire
in AFC South and NFC East
By BARRY WILNER
Associated Press
NEW YORK — As the calendar turns to
2021, the NFL is experiencing pretty much
what it covets. Try two division races, and ﬁ ve
wild-card berths out of six still undecided.
Not to go unnoticed, naturally, is that the
league is about to ﬁ nish an entire schedule
on time, with a few postponements but not
nearly the disruptions plaguing the other
major sports organizations in 2020.
The focus in Week 17 will range from
coast to coast. Miami, Baltimore, Cleveland,
Tennessee and Indianapolis are chasing post-
season qualiﬁ cation in the AFC, while the
Cardinals, Rams, Bears, Giants, Cowboys
and Washington seek NFC spots.
AFC South
Both contenders for this division face
NFL tailenders. The Titans have every-
thing in their control, while the Colts need
assistance.
Tennessee (10-5) at Houston (4-11)
“It doesn’t get any more clear than it is for
us right now,” Titans quarterback Ryan Tan-
neill says. “We win this game, ﬁ nd a way
to win, win the division. That’s one of the
things we set out to do this year. It’s pretty
clear what we need to do. We just have to go
out and make it happen.”
To do so, and take the AFC South for the
ﬁ rst time since 2008, they’ll certainly rely
on Derrick Henry. He’s assured of repeating
as NFL rushing champ, the ﬁ rst since Hall
of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006-07.
Henry has a career-high 1,777 yards rush-
ing and ran for 212 yards in his most recent
game against the Texans. He had 211 yards
See Races, Page B2
Metcalf on verge of toppling
35-year-old Seahawks record
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — As DK Metcalf
was ﬁ nishing up his rookie season a year
ago, he took a glance at the Seattle Sea-
hawks record book.
After having 900 yards receiving as a
rookie, Metcalf knew the single-season
franchise record was well within reach.
“I knew it was going to be on the agenda
this year to break it,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf will likely need just one catch
on Sunday, Jan. 3, to topple the record that
has stood for 35 years.
He is 6 yards shy of besting Steve
Largent’s single-season franchise record.
Largent had 1,287 receiving yards in 1985,
the best of a nine-season run during which
the Hall of Famer topped 1,000 yards eight
times. Largent only failed to reach the mark
during the strike-shortened 1982 season.
The Seahawks can only hope this sea-
son is the beginning of a similar run by
its young second-year star, who with each
passing week looks more like one of big-
gest draft steals in recent memory.
“He can make every catch, do everything
you want him to do,” quarterback Russell
Wilson said. “To be even mentioned in the
same category as a guy like Steve Largent
so early is a blessing in itself.”
Metcalf goes into Week 17 against San
Francisco already among the elite in the
league. He’s sixth in the league in yards
receiving (1,282), touchdown catches (10)
and yards per reception (16.0). He’s just
the second wide receiver in team history to
receive a Pro Bowl selection in his ﬁ rst two
seasons, joining Brian Blades.
See Seahawks, Page B2
SPORTS SHORT
U.S. beats Sweden 4-0 for 3rd straight shutout, wins Group B
Associated Press
EDMONTON, Alberta — Bos-
ton College’s Spencer Knight made
27 saves and the United States
opened the ﬁ rst and second periods
with two-goal bursts to beat Swe-
den 4-0 on Thursday night, Dec. 31,
2020, and win Group B in the world
junior hockey championship.
The United States will face Slo-
vakia — the fourth-place ﬁ nisher
in Group A — in the quarterﬁ nals
Saturday, Jan. 2.
After opening with a 5-3 loss to
Russia, the United States has reeled
off a team-record three straight
shutouts, beating Austria 11-0 and
the Czech Republic 7-0 to set up the
showdown with Sweden for the top
spot in the group.
Boston College’s Drew Helleson
and Boston University’s Trevor
Zegras scored in the ﬁ rst four min-
utes, and Minnesota’s Ryan John-
son and Wisconsin’s Alex Turcotte
connected in quick succession early
in the second.
Sweden lost in regulation in the
preliminary round for the ﬁ rst time
since falling 2-0 to Canada in 2006.
In the other quarterﬁ nals,
defending champion Canada will
play the Czech Republic, Sweden
will face Finland, and Russia will
play Germany.
Earlier, Dylan Cozens scored
twice, Devon Levi made 18 saves
and Canada beat Finland 4-1 to win
Group A.
Dylan Holloway and Peyton
Krebs also scored to help Canada
complete pool play 4-0. Brad Lam-
bert scored for Finland.
In the ﬁ rst game of the day,
the Czech Republic took the ﬁ nal
Group B slot in the quarterﬁ nals,
routing Austria 7-0. Austria ﬁ n-
ished 0-4, and is 0-21 in the event.
Martin Lang scored twice for
Finland. Simon Kubicek, Filip
Prikryl, Pavel Novak, David
Juricek and Jan Mysak added goals
and Nick Malik made 15 saves.
Jason Franson/Associated Press
United States’ Alex Turcotte celebrates his goal against Sweden
during the second period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Champi-
onship game on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta.