BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, ApRIL 9, 2022 A5 SPORTS BAKER BASEBALL OPENS GREATER OREGON LEAGUE PLAY Bulldogs sweep Mac-Hi to open league schedule Logan Capon throws no-hitter in second game Younger led off with a triple and scored on Spike’s groundout. FIRST GAME Jaxon Logsdon doubled and later Baker 0 0 0 2 6 2 5 — 15 stole home, and Capon had a single Mac-Hi 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 — 3 to drive in Thomas Smithson, who Carter, Chastain (5) and Logsdon. had walked. Yensen, Esparza (5) and Esparza, Baker added two more runs in the Yensen (5). BY JAYSON JACOBY second to boost its lead to 5-0. Younger again started the surge, doubling with jjacoby@bakercityherald.com SECOND GAME Baker opened the Greater Ore- one out and scoring when Mac-Hi gon League baseball schedule with botched Logsdon’s ground ball. Cody Baker 3 2 0 0 4 1 — 10 a powerful performance, routing Skidgel drove in Logsdon with a single. Mac-Hi 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 Mac-Hi in both games of a double- Baker scored four more runs in the Capon and Logsdon. Waltermire and header on Wednesday, April 6, at fifth. Smithson, Capon and Cole Hes- Esparza. Milton-Freewater. ter had consecutive singles to load the After a sluggish first four innings, bases. Smithson scored on a passed Baker rolled to a 15-3 win in the ball and Capon scored on an error. opener. Logan Capon tossed a no-hit- Younger hit a sacrifice fly and Spike three hits and struck out nine before ter in the second game as the Bulldogs had an RBI double. being relieved by Chastain in the fifth won 10-0 in six innings. inning. Chastain didn’t allow a hit or a Capon’s bid for a perfect game Game one walk in 2.2 innings, striking out six. ended when he hit a batter to start the Mac-Hi led 1-0 after three innings, Smith said both pitchers threw well. fourth inning. That was Mac-Hi’s only and the score was tied at 2 after four. Carter allowed three hits and struck baserunner. Capon struck out 13 of “We let them hang around through out nine batters. the 19 batters he faced. He also threw four innings,” Smith said. “We talked Baker had its only error of the dou- a first pitch strike to 11 hitters and had about that, I told them that we’re an er- bleheader in the first game. 54 strikes on 76 total pitches. ror away from coming out with a loss.” That’s a major improvement from “It was the best pitching perfor- The Bulldogs responded, breaking the Bulldogs’ three-game road trip to mance of the year for our team, the game open with a six-run rally the Oregon Coast last weekend, when without a doubt,” Baker coach Tim with two outs in the top of the fifth. they committed 15 total errors. Smith said. “Logan was in a zone. After the first two batters flied out, The Bulldogs improved to 6-6 over- Hopefully he can find that zone ev- Younger reached on an error, advanc- all. Baker returns to league play on Fri- ery time he goes out.” ing to second on the play. He scored day, April 15, playing host to Ontario Smith said if Capon had managed on Spike’s single. in a doubleheader at the Baker Sports the perfect game it would have been Logsdon walked and Skidgel was hit Complex. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. the first in Smith’s coaching career. by a pitch to load the bases. Smithson Although Smith said Baker will face Capon helped himself with the bat was hit by a pitch to score Spike. Hes- more formidable opponents later this as well, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs. ter drove in two runs with a double, season — two doubleheaders against Hudson Spike drove in two runs, and three straight walks plated two La Grande, which is 10-1 and ranked and Hayden Younger was 3 for 3 with more runs to boost Baker’s lead to 8-2. seventh in the state, are looming — he an RBI. “We took advantage of (Mac-Hi’s) was pleased with the Bulldogs’ perfor- mistakes,” Smith said. “Starting in the mance against Mac-Hi, coming off the Baker had 13 hits. Although the Bulldogs didn’t have fifth inning we hit a lot of line drives, disappointing road trip. many defensive changes given Capon’s and that continued into game two.” “We can’t control who we’re play- Baker added five more runs in the ing,” he said. “We need to take care of dominance on the mound, Baker top of the seventh, including Spike’s made all the plays, finishing without our business, throwing strikes, playing RBI single, Logsdon’s RBI double and error-free defense and putting the ball an error. Connor Chastain’s sacrifice fly. in play. We’re kind of a work in prog- Baker took control of the second Starting pitcher Silas Carter allowed ress at this point.” game from the start. Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald Baker’s Logan Capon runs the bases during the Bulldogs’ 8-6 win over Homedale, Idaho, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at the Baker Sports Complex. CJ McCollum scores 23 points, Baker wins 8 of 9 matches at Mac-Hi Pelicans beat Blazers 127-94 BAKER TENNIS Baker City Herald MILTON-FREEWATER — The Baker tennis teams nearly pulled off a complete sweep of their matches against Mac-Hi on Thursday, April 7. Baker won all four girls matches and four of five boys matches. The lone loss was in the longest and most competitive match of the day, as Baker’s boys doubles team of Ethan Hills and Jayden Yencopal played Mac-Hi’s Sean Molina and Jose Gomez. The first set went to a tie- breaker, and it was as close as the rest of the set had been. Molina and Gomez eventually prevailed, 11-9. The second set was almost as tight, with the Mac-Hi duo winning 7-5. Baker coach Amy Younger said Hills and Yencopal played a great match. Other boys results: Singles Danny Cunningham def. Connor Batchelor, 6-1, 6-0 Caleb Hills def. Bryan Gar- cia, 8-2 Ashton LeTourneau def. Carlos LeDezma, 8-1 Doubles Noah Lien and Weston Downing def. Talen Alexan- der and Bryan Garcia, 8-0 GIRLS Singles Isabel Cunningham def. Avery Lewis, 6-2, 6-4 Maya Smith def. Jocelyne Arroyo, 8-1 Olivia Jacoby def. Kaylee Bower, 8-4 Doubles Maya Smith and Olivia Jacoby def. Ariana Torres and Johanna Martinez, 6-1, 6-3 Next week Baker will travel to Weiser, Idaho, on Monday, April 11, for matches starting at 3 p.m. PDT. The Bulldogs will have their first home match of the season on Tuesday, April 12, against La Grande. Play starts at 4 p.m. at the Ash Grove complex near the BHS track. “Our bench was great. They brought energy, pushed the pace,” McCollum said. “From NEW ORLEANS — CJ top to bottom, this was a good McCollum scored 23 points in 29 minutes against his for- team win. Now we’ve got to mer team and the New Or- finish the season strong. Hope- leans Pelicans moved closer fully, we can take care of busi- to clinching a home play-in ness and host the play-in game.” game with a 127-94 victory The victory, combined with over the Portland Trail Blazers San Antonio’s loss at Minne- on Thursday night, April 7. sota, left New Orleans need- Jonas Valanciunas, who ing either one more victory or returned from a sore right one more Spurs loss to lock ankle, scored 14 points in up a home play-in game on 21 minutes for the Pelicans, Wednesday. who were without lead- McCollum appeared to hurt ing scorer Brandon Ingram his right hand, with which he (right hamstring), but wound shoots, when he was fouled up not needing any starters and crashed to the floor in on the floor for as many as the third quarter. But after 30 minutes against a reel- missing two free throws and ing Blazers team that had a a subsequent 3, he remained patchwork lineup and lost its in game for nearly eight more ninth straight. minutes, hitting his fifth 3 of BY BRETT MARTEL Associated Press K N A TH ! ! ! U YO SPONSORS Behlen Manufacturing Co. Guyer & Associates Lew Brothers Tire Service, Inc. Triple C Redi-Mix Ash Grove Cement Co. Baker Garage Clarke & Clarke Insurance Hal Huntington Marvin Companies Millers Lumber & Truss R.D. Mac, Inc. Silven, Schmeits & Vaughn Baker Vision Clinic Nick Conklin Insurance Agency Sunfire Real Estate Farm & Industrial Service Co., Inc. Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald Baker’s Caleb Hills returns a shot during his match on Thursday, March 31, 2022, at Pendleton. Hills won his singles match at Mac-Hi on Thursday, April 7, 2022. IN-KIND DONATIONS AJ’s Corner Brick Albertson’s Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort Appliances & More Baker Aircraft Baker County YMCA Baker Dental Group Baker Truck Corral Barbara Wilbur Barley Brown’s Brew Pub Beerded Dog Betty’s Books Bi-Mart A Night at Old Auburn the game and a finger roll, be- fore checking out for good. Reserve center Willy Her- nangomez had 17 points and 14 rebounds for New Orle- ans. Larry Nance Jr., sent from Portland to New Orleans as part of the trade that also brought McCollum to the Pel- icans, scored 12 points, as did rookie Trey Murphy III. Reserve guard and undrafted rookie Jose Alvarado had nine assists and four steals for the Pelicans, who led by 13 at half- time and by 25 after three and widened their lead from there. Trail Blazers coach Chauncy Billups said he suspected his players could be getting “really fatigued” mentally as the sea- son winds down. “You see the finish line, the season is coming to an end. We’re not playing for the play- offs,” Billups said. “It’s just a nat- ural thing that happens. So we have to, as a staff, do a better job of just getting them up to play.” Drew Eubanks scored 20 points and CJ Elleby had 17 points for Portland, but the Blazers were sloppy with the ball and outworked around the basket. Portland committed 22 turnovers, leading to 36 Pelicans points. New Orleans also turned 23 offensive rebounds into 33 second-chance points and out- rebounded the Blazers 49-27. “We wanted to be active on our defense ... try to cause havoc with deflections and steals,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “This triggers our offensive ability to get out and play in open court. I thought our guys did a really good job.” The Friends of the Baker Heritage Museum wishes to thank all of the generous sponsors and donors that contributed to our annual fundraiser, “A Night at Old Auburn Casino Night. Your Contributions made our event a success. We sincerely thank each and every one of you. Night Carpet One Cashway Lumber Company Charley’s Deli & Ice Cream Churchill School Club 24 Cody’s General Store Commercial Tire Copper Belt Winery/Cheese Fairy Corner Brick Bar & Grill Country Financial Crossroads Carnegie Art Center D & B Supply D & J Taco Shop Dairy Queen Delicioso Mexican Restaurantd Dr. Steve Bachman Eagle Cap Grill El Erradero Restuarant Elkhorn Custom Apparel Eltrym Theater Glacier 45 Distillery Glow Hair Studio Golde Crow Restaurant Grocery Outlet Hearts & Pearls Flower Shop Inland Cafe J Tabors Jewelers Lattitude 45 Grille Liberty Motorsports & Repair Lisa’s Motorsports & Repair Lisa’s Doggie Depot Lube Depot Main Event Main Frontier Maurices Mavericks McDonald’s Muddy Creek Studio Mulan Garden Restaurant Novak Studio O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Oregon Trail Restaurant No. 1911 North Seven Brewing Co. Oregon Trail Restaurant Pam Bingham Perfect 10 Nail Bar/Shanna Golden Peterson’s Gallery & Chocolatier Philadelphia’s Pizza Hut Quail Ridge Golf Course Ramdom Resales & Riches Rite Aid Crew RM Auto Detail & Car Wash Robbin Equipment, Inc. Royal Artisan Ryder Brothers/Tawny’s Toys Safeway Shameless Tees Sherman Trucking, LLC Sorbenot’s Coffee Sunn Juice & Decor Sweet Wife Baking Sycamore Tree Taco Time TEC Copier Systems Thatcher’s Ace Hardware The 41 Club Crew The Windshield Doctor Wildhorse Resort & Casino