BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022 A5
SPORTS
BAKER SOFTBALL
Bulldogs dominate Nyssa, 15-0
a passed ball. Rayl scored on
a wild pitch and Rabourne
The Baker softball team
scored on another passed ball.
dominated from the start in a
Cuzick, who allowed just
nonleague game against Nyssa one hit and one walk, had two
on Tuesday, April 5, at the
more strikeouts in the top of
Baker Sports Complex.
the second.
Baker scored three runs in
Baker then took complete
the first inning and went on to control with seven runs in the
a 15-0 win.
bottom of the inning.
The game ended after three
The Bulldogs scored all
innings due to the 10-run
those runs with two outs.
mercy rule.
Aldrich singled and ad-
After Baker pitcher Kaycee
vanced to second and then
Cuzick held Nyssa scoreless in third on consecutive wild
the top of the first, including
pitches. Rayl singled to drive in
two strikeouts, Kiley Jo Aldrich Aldrich, and Baker led 4-0.
led off the bottom of the first
Rabourne single and Cuzick
and was hit by a pitch from
walked to load the bases. Rayl
Taylor Cassity.
scored on a wild pitch, and
Brooklyn Rayl followed
Kaci Anderson doubled to left
with a single, the first of her
field to drive in Rabourne with
three hits.
Baker’s sixth run.
Aldrich stole third and Rayl
Candace Peterson doubled
stole second, and with Makayla to drive in Oakley Anderson,
Rabourne batting, Aldrich
who was a courtesy runner
scored the game’s first run on
for Cuzick.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Peterson later scored when
Nyssa first baseman Jenny Tru-
jillo misplayed Te’ygan Coley’s
hard ground ball.
Ashlyn Dalton then com-
pleted the scoring with an RBI
single that scored Coley.
Baker added five more runs
in the third.
Rayl, who was 3 for 3, had a
leadoff double and scored on
Rabourne’s single.
Cuzick followed with an
RBI single, and Kaci Anderson
drove in a run with her second
double.
Coley’s RBI single pushed
Baker’s lead to 14-0, and Syd-
ney Fry singled to score Coley
with the game’s final run.
Nine Baker players had at
least one hit as the Bulldogs
amassed 15 hits in just three
innings against Cassity, who
was pitching in place of Nyssa’s
top pitcher, who was out with
an injury.
Nyssa
Baker
0
3
0
7
0 — 0
5 — 15
“Nine players had hits — I
love to see that,” Baker coach
Sonny Gulick said.
He said both Peterson and
Rayl barely missed home runs,
each hitting a double that went
off the wall.
On defense, Baker, which at
times has struggled on defense,
didn’t commit an error.
Baker defenders didn’t have
many chances, as Cuzick got
seven of Nyssa’s nine outs on
strikeouts.
“We made the plays when we
needed to,” Gulick said.
Baker improved to 4-2.
The Bulldogs traveled to Mil-
ton-Freewater on Wednesday,
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
April 6, to open Greater Ore-
Ashlyn Dalton bats against Burns on Friday, April 1, 2022, at the Baker
gon League play with a double- Sports Complex. Dalton had an RBI single in Baker’s 15-0 win over
header against Mac-Hi.
Nyssa on April 5, 2022.
Tiger Woods thinks he can win at Augusta
BAKER TENNIS
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Two
words can go a long way when
Tiger Woods is behind them.
No one would have been
surprised if Woods never
played golf again after a car
crash in Los Angeles that
damaged his right leg so
badly he said doctors raised
the prospect of amputation.
Out of the public eye for nine
months, Woods sent hopes
soaring last November with
a video of him swinging the
club with a simple message,
“Making progress.”
And here he is at Augusta
National, making a Mon-
day practice round feel like
Sunday at a major because
of the gallery, walking the
steep slopes, swinging well
and making it clear he has
every intention of playing in
the Masters.
Does he think he can win?
Woods offered the shortest
answer of his press confer-
ence: “I do.”
He said Tuesday, April 5, he
is planning to play and thinks
he can win. Never mind that
it will be 508 days from the
last time he played a tourna-
ment where he had to walk,
or that he returns to this Mas-
ters with screws and rods still
holding the bones in place in
his right leg.
Woods also is 46. He would
be the oldest Masters cham-
pion by three weeks over Jack
Nicklaus.
The biggest question is how
he holds up over 18 holes for
four straight days. Woods
walked 18 holes last week —
his first big test — during a
scouting trip with 13-year-old
son Charlie (including a stop
at the Par 3 course).
He played the back nine
on Sunday, the front nine on
Monday.
Woods plans nine more
for Wednesday and then it’s
“game time.” He is to tee off
at 7:34 a.m. PDT Thursday,
April 7, with Louis Oosthui-
zen and Joaquin Niemann.
“I can hit it just fine. I don’t
have any qualms about what
I can do physically from a
golf standpoint,” Woods said.
“Walking is the hard part.
This is normally not an easy
walk to begin with. Now
given the conditions that my
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Baker’s Ashton LeTourneau returns a shot during his match at
Pendleton on Thursday, March 31, 2022. LeTourneau won his singles
match against Ontario’s Henry Garrett on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.
Baker girls top
Ontario, boys
split 6 matches
taining battle between Baker’s
Danny Cunningham and On-
tario’s Dallin Berg.
The first set went to a tie-
breaker, with Berg winning
7-4. The second set was close
throughout, with Berg prevail-
ing, 7-5.
“It was a fun match,”
Younger said.
Girls
In the No. 2 singles match,
Baker’s Sarah Plummer won
the No. 1 singles match, defeat- Baker’s Caleb Hills beat Jack
Hally, 6-3, 6-4.
ing Ontario’s Laken Herrera,
Baker’s Ashton LeTourneau
6-4, 6-3.
won the No. 3 singles match
Baker coach Amy Younger
over Henry Garrett, 6-4, 6-0.
said she’s pleased with Plum-
Anthony Christoper lost to
mer’s progress considering she
missed a couple weeks of prac- Martin Benites, 6-1, 6-2, and
Weston Downing lost a pro set
tice while competing in wres-
tling and then having her wis- to Edgar Bernabe, 8-0.
Younger said Christopher
dom teeth pulled.
Baker’s Isabel Cunningham “has improved so much over
last year.”
lost only one game in beating
In doubles, Ontario’s Jared
Samantha DeLeon 6-0, 6-1 in
Hally and Eduardo Navar-
the No. 2 singles match.
ro-Ramirez rallied to beat
Younger said that although
Baker’s Ethan Hills and Jayden
DeLeon wasn’t the strongest
opponent, Cunningham served Yencopal, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
The Tigers won the No. 2
and played well.
doubles match in similar fa-
In doubles, Baker’s Maya
Smith and Olivia Jacoby beat
sion, as Pablo Ponce-Garcia
Paige Eidson and Abbigail
and Bryan Alejandro-Munoz
Hally, 6-0, 6-4.
beat Noah Lien and Weston
In the No. 2 doubles match, Downing, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Ontario’s Erika Perez and Og-
The No. 3 doubles match
aly Santiago beat Riley Shaw
also went three sets, with Bak-
and Daphne Thomas, 6-0, 6-1. er’s Lincoln Nemec and Diego
In the third doubles match, Bedolla overcoming Hum-
which was played to a pro set, berto Gonzalez and Paul Bar-
Ontario’s Maya Gomez-Meza rido, 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 (tiebreaker).
and Cayman Campbell
Younger said that although
beat Baker’s Smith and
Baker has played just two
Thomas, 8-3.
matches, she’s seeing im-
provement in the team both
Boys
in singles and doubles “now
The No. 1 singles match was that we’re able to not just play
a highly competitive and enter- against ourselves.”
Baker City Herald
ONTARIO — The Baker
High School tennis teams
opened its district schedule at
Ontario on Tuesday, April 5,
with the Bulldog girls winning
three of five matches and the
boys splitting six matches.
Andrew Redington/Getty Images-TNS
Tiger Woods (right) and Justin Thomas look on from the first green during a practice round prior to the
Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 4, 2022, in Augusta, Georgia.
leg is in, it gets even more
difficult.
“Seventy-two holes is a long
road and it’s going to be a
tough challenge,” he said. “And
a challenge that I’m up for.”
That might be the biggest
reason Woods is even at Au-
gusta National for more than
the sushi and miso-glazed cod
and Wagyu beef that defend-
ing champion Hideki Mat-
suyama put on the menu for
the champions-only dinner
Tuesday night.
If he never plays — if he
never wins — Woods said he
is satisfied with what he has
achieved.
“I think 82 is a pretty good
number,” Woods said. “And 15
is not too bad, either.”
His 15 majors are second
only to Jack Nicklaus and his
18, the gold standard in golf.
He is tied with Sam Snead for
the PGA Tour career record
with 82 wins.
So why keep coming back?
What else is there to prove?
“I love competing,” Woods
said. “And I feel like if I can
still compete at the highest
level, I’m going to. And if I feel
like I can still win, I’m going
to play.”
“I don’t show up to an event
unless I think I can win it. So
that’s the attitude I’ve had,”
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he said. “There will be a day
when it won’t happen, and I’ll
know when that is.”
Shortly after he spoke, the
starting times were released.
Woods is helped by being
part of the early-late rotation,
meaning he will have some 22
hours between rounds.
Otherwise, Tuesday was
mostly a wash. Woods wasn’t
planning on anything more
than working on the range,
anyway, and even that worked
in his favor. Heavy storms
moved over Augusta about the
time he finished his work, and
the course was closed the rest
of the day.
As long as Woods has been
part of Masters lore — Nick-
laus and Arnold Palmer once
predicted he would win more
green jackets than both of
them combined (10) — the
reality is rust from no serious
competition and a body that
has endured at least 10 surger-
ies to both legs and his back.
But he’s planning to play,
and that feels like enough.
For now.
“I think that the fact that I
was able to get myself here to
this point is a success,” Woods
said. “And now that I am play-
ing, now everything is focused
on, ‘How do I get myself into
the position where I’m on that
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back nine on Sunday with a
chance?’ Just like I did a few
years ago.”
That was 2019, his fifth
Masters title that followed four
surgeries the previous five
years on his lower back.
“How many comebacks has
he had?” Jordan Spieth asked
in wonderment.
There was the return from
reconstructive knee surgery
after his 2008 U.S. Open vic-
tory. He won seven times
worldwide the following year.
There was a return to No. 1
following the implosion in his
personal life, and before the
back surgeries.
Nothing compares with this
one, mainly because of the
walking involved on a leg so
badly damaged that Woods
spent three months in a hos-
pital bed before advancing to
a wheel chair, crutches, a com-
pression sleeve and still the
occasional limp.
“It’s amazing if you think
about where he was at a year
ago to now,” Spieth said. “I
don’t know how many peo-
ple — if anybody — could be
out here. And this is not an
easy walk. So to be out here
and not to throw his age in
the mix, but I don’t think that
helps much for that recovery.
“But is anybody surprised?”
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