6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
McCollum
leads Blazers
past Celtics
BAKER BASEBALL
By Doug Alden
Associated Press
Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
Baker’s Hayden Younger prepares to tag out a La Grande runner at second base on Saturday, May 1.
La Grande sweeps Bulldogs
■ Tigers improve season record against Baker to 4-0; Baker is 4-0 against other teams
very next inning, as Zellars
hit with a two-out double
and scored on senior Jake
Wright’s hit.
Arriaga then drove in
Wright with a base hit.
“I thought we did a nice job
in the bottom of the fourth.
That’s what we were stress-
ing every half inning — we
gotta win this inning, we
gotta win this inning, you
just always want them to
compete,” Smith said.
Logan Hull drove in a run
in the fi fth, but the game
ended by 10-run rule.
Baker returns to the
diamond today with a single
game at Ontario starting at 4
p.m. PDT.
By Corey Kirk
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
With parents and some
future Bulldogs watching
on the opening day of the
Little League season, Baker
struggled again with the La
Grande Tigers, losing a base-
ball doubleheader Saturday,
May 1 at the Sports Complex.
La Grande swept the two
games, 15-0 and 24-3, to
improve to 7-1.
Baker dropped to 4-4, with
all four of its losses to La
Grande. The Tigers swept a
doubleheader on April 20.
“I wasn’t real pleased with
the result,” Baker coach Tim
Smith said. “I didn’t think we
got it done on the mound, and
I wasn’t pleased with the ap-
proach of the fi rst game and
part of the second game.”
In game one, La Grande
pitcher Riley Miller stifl ed
Baker’s offense, allowing just
a single hit.
Smith said the Bulldogs
needed to be more aggressive
against Miller.
“You have to drive up his
pitch count, we didn’t do
that, he threw 71-72 pitches,”
Smith said. “He’s an effective
pitcher, he isn’t going to put
us on base, we were going to
have to earn it.”
Miller walked two batters
and struck out nine.
Baker didn’t get its lone hit
until the fi fth, when senior
Zander Arriaga led off with a
single.
But Baker couldn’t take
advantage.
“Our goal was to work our
way into deep counts, get on
base, walk, hit by pitch, just
get something started,” Smith
said. “We didn’t capitalize
with hits.”
La Grande, meanwhile,
had no problems at the plate.
The Tigers scored eight
runs in the top of the fi rst to
take control early.
The game ended after fi ve
innings due to the 10-run
rule.
In the second game, the
BOSTON — CJ McCollum scored 10 of his 33 points
in the fourth quarter and Portland held on for a 129-119
win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night, extending
the Trail Blazers’ winning streak to four.
Damian Lillard had 26 points and 13 assists for Port-
land. Carmelo Anthony fi nished with 13 points — includ-
ing a 3-pointer with 1:08 remaining to help seal it after
Boston pulled within two points.
The Trail Blazers improved to 4-0 on their six-game
road trip. They entered the game in seventh in the West-
ern Conference playoff standings and are trying to work
their way out of the play-in round.
“I think we’re playing better basketball at the right
time,” McCollum said. “Understanding the severity of
each game — what we need to accomplish heading into
the playoffs and what we need to accomplish to get into
the playoffs is very important.”
Jayson Tatum scored 33 to lead Boston, which is trying
to avoid falling into the play-in round in the fi nal weeks
of the season.
“We need to just take the mindset of whether we won
or lost, you can’t change that,” Tatum said.
After rallying from 32 points behind to beat San Anto-
nio in overtime Friday night, the Celtics couldn’t produce
another comeback against the Blazers, who shot 52% (44
for 85). The Blazers also helped themselves by forcing 18
turnovers and committing only nine.
“I think the biggest thing is I thought we were very ag-
gressive on the ball,” coach Terry Stotts said. “We created
turnovers in a variety of ways. But I think the pressure
on the ball, our hands and our alertness on the weak side
all played a part in it.”
Norman Powell scored 23 points, Robert Covington
had 10 and Jusuf Nurkic pulled down 11 rebounds for
Portland, which will have six games remaining — includ-
ing four at home — once the road trip ends after stops in
Atlanta and Cleveland.
“Like I was saying before we left on the road trip, on
the road trip, what are you willing to do to dig yourself
out? How desperate are we willing to go out there and
look and be and behave?” Lillard said. “We need to win
these games.”
Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
Andrew Zellars pitches against La Grande on Saturday,
May 1, at the Baker Sports Complex.
Bulldogs’ struggles at the
plate continued as they
totaled 15 strikeouts between
both contests.
Smith said he needs to ad-
dress that as the season con-
tinues by making sure Baker
has more practice against live
pitching rather than batting
against a machine. It’s a
challenge with the schedule
including multiple midweek
games.
“We have to fi gure out our
way as coaches to try to put a
little more pressure on them
in practice but it’s pretty
tough to simulate,” Smith
said. “We don’t have a lot of
break days, and our guys are
pitching every four days, so
it’s tough, you put them on
a machine, it’s predictable,
it doesn’t work. It’s hard for
us to get live pitching reps,
because we are resting guys,
getting ready for their next
start.”
Junior Cody Skidgel start-
ed on the mound for Baker in
the second game. Although
La Grande continued its of-
fensive onslaught, Smith said
he was proud of Skidgel for
allowing just two walks, and
striking out three Tigers.
“He (Skidgel) was cruising,
he was doing a pretty good
job doing his part, they were
just hitting the baseball,”
Smith said. “Cody threw pret-
ty well, he threw 72 pitches
and 43 strikes.”
La Grande did most of its
damage in the fourth inning,
scoring 17 runs against three
pitchers.
Baker’s defense also strug-
gled during the inning, giving
La Grande extra at-bats.
“I thought defensively
behind Cody we didn’t get it
done several times when we
could go out of the inning,”
Smith said. “In the fourth
inning I was just trying to
fi nd a guy, I was just hop-
ing someone would come in,
change it up and get an out
and we would be done.”
The Bulldogs were able
to get on the board the
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Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
Zander Arriaga takes a swing against La Grande on Saturday, May 1.
210 Bridge St. Baker City, OR