SPORTS
SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — 7A
BAKER TENNIS
Pac-12 names
Plummer qualifies for state commissioner
By Corey Kirk
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
By Ralph D. Russo
Baker junior Sarah Plummer will represent the
Bulldogs at the state tennis tournament next week at
the Umpqua Tennis Center in Roseburg.
Plummer, Baker’s lone girls singles player, fi nished
second in the district tournament Thursday, May 13
at the Ash Grove Courts in Baker City.
“I’m proud of how hard she works to improve every
day at practice,” Baker coach Amy Younger said of
Plummer. “I’m very pleased with her ability to adapt,
learn, and try to implement stuff we talked about
while practicing.”
Plummer beat La Grande’s Breena Bushman
6-0, 6-1 in the fi rst round, and Ontario’s Emma
Navarrette 6-3, 6-1 in the semifi nals. In the district
championship match, Plummer lost 7-6, 6-4 to La
Grande’s Presley Justice.
In girls doubles, Baker’s team of freshman Tristen
Tritt and sophomore Riley Shaw won their fi rst-
round match but lost in the semifi nals.
In boys action, Baker singles players Karsten
Cikanek and Lincoln Nemec lost in the fi rst round, as
did the doubles teams of Weston Downing and Noah
Lien, and Davis Macias and Austin Hays.
“The overall efforts of the team were fantastic, they
played and tried hard and as a coach that’s all I can
ask for,” Younger said.
AP College Football Writer
Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
Sarah Plummer qualifi ed for the state tennis tournament
The Pac-12 hired George Kliavkoff to be the confer-
ence’s next commissioner Thursday, replacing Larry
Scott with another college sports outsider and charging
him with rebuilding the football brand.
Kliavkoff has been the president of sports and enter-
tainment for MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas
since 2018.
University of Oregon President Michael H. Schill, the
chairman of the Pac-12’s fi ve-member search committee,
called Kliavkoff “a highly experienced and pioneering
sports, entertainment and digital media executive.”
Kliavkoff, 54, has previously worked with Major
League Baseball Advanced Media and Hearst Enter-
tainment & Syndication, and was also the chief digital
offi cer with NBC Universal Cable.
“He is very much a new prototype for sports commis-
sioner,” Schill said. “He is the sort of person we need
for this decade and the decades beyond. Even without
serving a day in the job, George has thoughtfully chal-
lenged us to envision what is possible for the Pac-12.
What is possible for the coming era of new technologies
and media.”
The Pac-12 university presidents conducted a secre-
tive nearly four-month search with the executive search
fi rm, TurnkeyZRG.
BAKER SOFTBALL
Baker salutes softball seniors before final home games
By Corey Kirk
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
The Baker softball team
honored its three seniors
before taking on Grant Union
at the Baker Sports Complex
Wednesday, May 12.
Seniors Jordynn Fine,
Rebekah Davis and Shelby
Griffi th were recognized by
the small crowd prior to the
fi rst game.
The Prospectors (9-2) swept
the twinbill, 11-0 and 21-3.
Baker coach Sonny Gulick,
who taught some of the
seniors in elementary school,
Corey Kirk/Baker City Herald
said he’s grateful that they
continued to play despite the Senior Shelby Griffi th at bat Wednesday, May 12.
challenges of the past two
seasons, with 2020’s schedule
“I appreciate them sticking jobs and made shifts at work
being canceled and this year’s it out, it’s been a tough year,
so they can be here,” Gulick
being shortened.
and some of them have had
said.
In game one, sophomore
Kaycee Cuzick started in the
circle. Although the Prospec-
tors hit the ball hard, Gulick
was proud of Cuzick’s effort.
“She’s putting the ball
where the hitter could hit,
and that’s all that you can
ask for,” he said. “Right now
we have to do a better job
in the fi eld supporting her,
which I’ve said consistently
all year.”
Stepping up to the plate,
the Bulldogs struggled to
spark any momentum dur-
ing the fi rst game, striking
11 times. Gulick said the
Bulldogs need to be more
patient at the plate rather
than swinging at pitches that
would be called balls.
“There were times where
we were helping the pitcher
making sure they were
ahead of the count,” Gulick
said.
After scoring seven runs
in the fi rst four innings, the
Prospectors plated four runs
in the fi fth and held Baker
scoreless to win 11-0 by
mercy rule.
In game two, the Bulldogs
put sophomore Teygan Coley
in the pitcher’s circle, and the
Prospectors again showed
their offensive prowess.
“They were hitting her
hard, they were hitting gaps,
everything they did, they did
pretty well,” Gulick said.
The Bulldogs had a stron-
ger showing in game two at
the plate, however. In the bot-
tom of the fi rst, Fine drove in
sophomore Taylor Gyllenberg
with Baker’s fi rst run.
Then, in the bottom of
the third, sophomore Kaci
Anderson drove in two runs
with a deep shot that turned
into a triple.
“I was pretty happy, Jor-
dynn and Bekah (Rebekah
Davis), two of our seniors,
had a hit when we needed to
move some runners around
and to score them, and of
course Kaci Anderson with
that two-run triple there,
which was great,” Gulick
said.
Grant Union continued to
score often, and again ended
the game after fi ve innings.
Baker concludes its season
today by traveling to Nyssa
for a doubleheader.
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