E AST O REGONIAN
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
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A10
SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Pendleton’s Sauren Garton winds up to pitch against Rid-
geview on May 10, 2022, at Steve Cary Field, Pendleton.
The Bucks won the game 1-0.
Records collapse
under weight of
top performances
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Clair Costello, who is stepping down at the end of 2022 as Riverside High School athletic director and boys basketball coach,
amassed more than 400 wins during his 32 years as boys head coach and was named Coach of the Year three times. Costello
will continue to coach the girls basketball team.
It’s been a great ride
Longtime
Riverside coach
Clair Costello
is retiring
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
B
OARDMAN — During
his 30-plus years as basket-
ball coach at Riverside High
School, Clair Costello made
dozens of phone calls from a
payphone outside the Safeway in Burns.
He had to make sure the local paper had
the results from his games.
That payphone, and likely others he
frequented in small towns across Oregon
during his coaching career, are long gone,
but the memories he’s made over the years
are his to keep.
“Winning is more fun than losing, but
the best part is getting to work with the
kids and parents, and seeing new faces,”
Costello said. “Those things are neat
when you see kids from the past. I don’t
always know their names, but I remem-
ber faces. It has always been good. People
have always treated me really well, that’s
why we stayed.”
In two weeks time, Costello will turn
out the lights in his offi ce and cart his last
box of belongings to his car. He is retiring
from everything except girls basketball.
He’s going to stay on for one more year.
“I’m not counting the days, but I am,”
he said. “It’s hard not to. I’m 66 years
old. I think it’s time for somebody else
to come in.”
That would be football coach Cole
Ashby, who will step up to also coach
boys basketball and take over the athletic
director’s duties.
Costello has coached the boys basket-
ball team for 32 years, the girls team for a
little less, and he’s been the athletic direc-
tor since 2007. All that on top of teaching
six classes a day.
“I’ve had a few diff erent hats in my
time here,” Costello said. “I had to be
talked into some of it. I was happy with
what I was doing, I didn’t know what I
was getting into when I took the AD job.
I was coaching baseball, middle school
football and basketball. Next thing I
knew, I would be there late catching up
on emails, making sure we had offi cials
and what not.”
During Costello’s tenure with the boys
team, he won more than 400 games, was
named Coach of the Year three times and
made nine trips to state. His teams placed
third at the 3A tournament in 2007 and
sixth in 1999.
Dirk Dirksen, superintendent of the
Morrow County School District, also is
retiring this spring and started coaching
with Costello in the mid-1980s.
“We coached football, baseball and
basketball together,” Dirksen said. “We
coached for at least 10 years together.
He’s a great guy and works hard for the
students. The fact he has stuck with it,
with the travel in the Eastern Oregon
League, it’s phenomenal. His dedica-
tion to ride the bus to Burns, Nyssa and
Vale year after year. There are bus stories
going back for years when you travel that
far.”
One came to mind as Dirksen was
recalling their time together.
“There was this one trip from Board-
man to Milton-Freewater,” he said. “It had
See Costello, Page A11
Pendleton’s
Garton sets
single-season
strikeout record
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
PEN DLETON —
Pendleton senior Sauren
Garton set a single-sea-
son school record for
strikeouts on Wednesday,
May 11, after she fanned
16 La Grande batters in a
5-0 nonleague win.
Garton holds the record
with 241 strikeouts with
several games yet to play.
The previous record was 229
by Lauren Richards.
Garton has helped the
Bucks with a 20-2 overall
record this season, and an
11-1 mark in Intermountain
Conference play.
This season, Garton
has pitched 102 ⅓ innings,
allowing 33 hits and 19
runs — 12 earned. She has
walked 36 batters and hit six.
She has an 18-2 record and
an impressive .812 ERA.
Garton also is a threat
at the plate, hitting .409
with 27 hits. She has nine
doubles, three triples, three
home runs and 24 RBIs.
Baseball
In the first game of
their Special District 7
doubleheader May 14,
Weston-McEwen’s Blane
Peal and Dufur’s Isaac
Anthony were locked into
a pitcher’s duel.
Peal threw a one-hit-
ter with 17 strikeouts for
the TigerScots, while
Anthony threw a no-hit-
ter with 14 strikeouts for
the Rangers.
The one hit Peal gave
up was a solo home run
to Anthony in the top of
the sixth inning as Dufur
escaped with a 1-0 win.
It’s the fi rst run given up
by Peal this season.
Peal, who is headed to
George Fox University,
has thrown 47 innings in
nine starts this season.
He’s allowed seven hits,
walked seven batters and
has struck out 112. He has
a sterling .149 ERA.
The TigerScots won the
second game 6-5 to hand
the Rangers their first
league loss.
Track and fi eld
On her fi nal throw, in
her last meet at Kennison
Field, Hermiston senior
Bailey Young unleashed a
mighty throw of 47 feet, 1
inch in the shot put to win
the event and break her own
school record May 13, at
the Mid-Columbia Confer-
ence Championships.
See Highlights, Page A11
ON THE SLATE
Schedule subject to change
TUESDAY, MAY 17
Prep baseball
EOL Playoff s: Irrigon at Joseph,
4 p.m.
Touchet at McLoughlin, 4 p.m.
Crook County at Pendleton,
4:30 p.m.
Prep softball
Pendleton at Crook County,
4:30 p.m.
Prep golf
Pendleton at 5A boys state tourna-
ment, Trysting Tree, Corvallis, TBD
Heppner, Riverside boys at
3A/2A/1A state tournament, Quail
Valley, Banks, 7:30 a.m.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18
Prep softball
3A District 8: Hermiston at Univer-
sity, 4 p.m.
Pendleton JV at Weston-McEwen,
5 p.m.
Prep baseball
Weston-McEwen at Sherman (2),
2 p.m.
Heppner at Horizon Christian (2),
2:30 p.m.
Prep softball
La Grande at Pendleton, 4:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, MAY 19
Tennis
Pendleton at 5A state tournament,
Portland Tennis Center, 8 a.m.
Umatilla, Weston-McEwen, River-
side at 4A/3A/2A/1A state tourna-
ment, Oregon State University, Cor-
vallis, 8 a.m.
1A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
2A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
3A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
4A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
5A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
Track and Field
Hermiston at District 8 Champion-
ships, Spokane, TBD
Pendleton at 5A state meet, Hay-
ward Field, Eugene, TBD
Prep Lacrosse
3A state quarterfi nals: Hermiston at
Roosevelt, TBD
Track and fi eld
1A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
2A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
3A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
FRIDAY, MAY 20
Prep baseball
Pendleton at La Grande, 4 p.m.
SATURDAY, MAY 21
Tennis
Pendleton at 5A state tournament,
Babette Hornstein Tennis Center,
8 a.m.
Umatilla, Weston-McEwen, River-
side at 4A/3A/2A/1A state tourna-
ment, Oregon State University, Cor-
vallis, 8 a.m.
Track and Field
Hermiston at District 8 Champion-
ships, Spokane, TBD
4A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
5A state championships, Hayward
Field, Eugene, TBD
SPORTS SHORT
EOU softball team earns at-large bid to NAIA tournament
Eastern is coming off a semi-
fi nal appearance in the Cascade
Collegiate Conference tourna-
LA GRANDE — The East- ment, where the team was elim-
ern Oregon University softball inated by the College of Idaho.
program is headed to nationals.
The Mountaineers have currently
The Mountaineers
tallied a 41-15 record,
earned an at-large bid to
which tied the program
record for wins in a season.
the National Association
of Intercollegiate Athlet-
Texas A&M Texar-
ics tournament during
kana is 42-12 on the year,
the association’s selection
coming off a Red River
show May 10. Eastern,
Tournament champion-
ship title. The Eagles were
which is ranked No. 15
in the latest national poll,
Christian
ranked No. 22 in the latest
earned a two seed in the
NAIA national poll, but
tournament and will face three- found themselves ranked as high
seed Texas A&M Texarkana in as No. 13 earlier in the season.
Texas A&M Texarkana’s Anna
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on
May 16. Joining the Mountaineers Westberry leads the way for the
and Eagles in the Oklahoma City team’s pitching staff with a 23-4
bracket are Oklahoma City and record. Eastern’s Amanda Smith
William Woods.
has led the pitching eff orts this
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
season, accumulating a 19-6
record off 19 complete games.
Eastern’s national tourna-
ment berth is its fi rst since 2018,
the last season the Mountaineers
had a winning record. Head coach
Nicole Christian, who is in her
third year as Eastern’s head coach,
is set to make her national tourna-
ment debut with the Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers are sched-
uled to compete in game one of the
Oklahoma City bracket on May 16,
with the game time still to be deter-
mined. The four-team bracket is
double elimination, with the fi nal
matchup slated for May 18.
Following the opening round,
the winners will travel to Colum-
bus, Georgia, for the world series
bracket. The matchups are set to
begin on May 26 and a champion
will be named by June 1.
The Observer, File
Amanda Smith (14) delivers a pitch March 25, 2022, during the Eastern
Oregon University Mountaineers’ matchup with Providence Univer-
sity at the Peggy Anderson Softball Field, La Grande. EOU’s softball
program is headed to nationals.