A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022
LOCAL & SPORTS
Baker softball routs
Marsing, Idaho, 24-5
Baker City Herald
MARSING, Idaho — The
lightning bolt was not an en-
couraging sign for Baker soft-
ball coach Sonny Gulick.
But the clouds parted be-
fore the first pitch, and after
that most of the noise came
from the Bulldogs’ bats.
Baker, playing for the first
time in a week, scored 17 runs
in the first two innings and
went on to rout Marsing 24-5
on Wednesday, April 13.
The Bulldogs improved
their season record to 5-4.
During a week when the
weather more resembled Jan-
uary than mid April, Gulick
said he felt fortunate that
Baker was able to get in a
game for the first time since
April 6, when the Bulldogs
dropped a doubleheader at
Mac-Hi to open the Greater
Oregon League season.
But until the bus arrived
in Marsing, he wasn’t sure it
would happen.
“I was saying that about the
only thing we didn’t have on
the trip was a tornado,” Gu-
lick said.
The weather improved
when the Bulldogs passed
through Caldwell, though,
and for the first two innings
there was sunshine and, per-
haps more important, lit-
tle wind.
Baker took advantage of the
relatively pleasant conditions.
Leadoff hitter Kiley Jo Al-
drich was hit by a pitch, and
Brooklyn Rayl reached on
an error. Makayla Rabourne
singled to score Rayl, Kaycee
Cuzick singled to score Ra-
bourne, and courtesy runner
Kaydence Thomas scored on
Kaci Anderson’s double.
Ashlyn Dalton and Sydney
Fry later scored on passed
balls as Baker led 7-1 after
one inning.
Baker added to its lead with
10 more runs in the second.
Cuzick and Kaci Ander-
son both walked, and Ander-
son and Thomas, as a cour-
tesy runner, both scored on
wild pitches.
After Dalton doubled, Fry
singled and Aldrich was hit by
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Baker’s Kaycee Cuzick struck out nine Marsing batters in a
complete-game win on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at the Baker
Sports Complex. Baker won 18-2.
a pitch, Rayl and Candace Pe-
terson had RBI singles.
Gulick said he was pleased
with Baker batters taking ad-
vantage of Marsing’s mistakes.
“I thought we did a good
job of that all day,” he said. “I
was very happy. Everybody
got the ball in play.”
Gulick was equally satis-
fied with Baker’s pitching
performances.
Given Baker’s long gap
between games, he said his
goal was to have four pitchers
throw. Cuzick started in the
circle, with relievers Te’ygan
Coley, Rayl and Rabourne all
coming on in relief.
Baker pitchers allowed just
four hits and two walks.
Gulick said Rabourne had a
strong fifth inning, throwing
strikes on 11 of 17 pitches.
Rayl and Rabourne both
went 3 for 5 with two RBIs.
Peterson was 1 for 4 with 2
RBIs, and Emrie Osborn was
1 for 2 with 2 RBIs.
Baker 7 10 1 2 4 — 24
Marsing 1 2 2 0 0 — 5
Cuzick, Coley (3), Rayl (3),
Rabourne (5) and K. Ander-
son. Astorquia, Thoene (3)
and Gluch.
Baker was slated to return
to its league schedule by play-
ing host to Ontario in a dou-
bleheader starting at 2 p.m.
on Friday, April 15.
Despite the wintry
weather — about 2 inches of
snow fell in Baker City early
Thursday — Gulick was op-
timistic that the Ontario
games would be played.
“Our field has always been
pretty good about holding
water,” he said.
Gulick said the Bulldogs
practiced on their field
the afternoon of Tuesday,
April 12, even though there
was snow on the ground
that morning.
BMCC plans deep cuts to faculty
BY ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — After
warning about impending
budget cuts for months, the
other shoe has dropped at Blue
Mountain Community College.
At an April 25 budget com-
mittee meeting, BMCC ad-
ministration will propose
shuttering three programs and
eliminating 10 full-time faculty
positions in addition to several
part-time positions. Should
the BMCC Board of Education
approve the move, the college
would lose its criminal justice,
college prep and industrial
systems technology programs
while also dropping instructors
from its business, English, hu-
manities/fine arts, math/com-
puter science, science and so-
cial science departments.
In a Wednesday, April 13 in-
terview, Blue Mountain Presi-
dent Mark Browning said the
budget cuts need to be made to
help close a $2 million shortfall
in the 2022-23 budget.
“We have to start living
within our means,” he said.
“That’s the bottom line.”
The news was not well re-
ceived by the Blue Moun-
tain Faculty Association, the
union that represents the col-
lege’s instructors.
Union President Pete Hern-
berg described the list of pro-
posed cuts as “extraordinary
and shocking” and raises ques-
tions about the college’s com-
mitment to the community.
“These cuts are shocking,” he
said. “They are arbitrary. And
they are unnecessary.”
Hernberg questioned why
BMCC administration wanted
to cut the college’s criminal
justice program at a time when
law enforcement was trying
to recruit skilled personnel.
He added that eliminating the
industrial systems technol-
ogy department represented
a “broken promise” to Board-
man, which would still have its
Workforce Training Center but
not one of the signature pro-
grams the center houses.
Browning was prepared to
defend his administration’s
choices.
He said a degree from the
college’s criminal justice pro-
gram isn’t a requirement to
enter the law enforcement
field, and while he admitted
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Blue Mountain Community College will consider proposals to shutter
three programs and eliminate 10 full-time positions and additional
part-time positions.
the industrial systems tech-
nology had been a “good idea”
when it was started, the pro-
gram’s low enrollment meant
it can be replaced in Board-
man by the higher-demand
diesel tech program.
Browning turned his focus
to the English program, which
would lose one of its instructors
under the administration’s pro-
posal. He said the department’s
four-person staff is the same
size as it was a decade ago, even
though enrollment has shrunk
65% over the past 11 years.
BMCC, and other commu-
nity colleges across the state,
have seen significant enroll-
ment declines in recent years,
and Blue Mountain staff are
starting to see the effects of
that trend.
Since 2019, the college has
reduced its workforce by 39 po-
sitions, albeit under different
presidents. Those figures don’t
include additional staffing cuts
made when Blue Mountain was
forced to renegotiate its prison
education contract with the
Oregon Department of Correc-
tions during that time period..
This round of proposed cuts
differs from previous years be-
cause it mostly focuses on mak-
ing cuts to faculty. With pre-
vious staff reductions focused
on administration or classified
staff, Browning said there was
little room to cut in those areas.
But Hernberg argued that
BMCC was using its budget to
deprioritize instruction and
programming in favor of con-
tracts with consultants and
tech companies.
“What our community
needs is jobs and training for
those jobs,” he said. “What
our community needs are de-
grees and classes toward those
degrees. That’s the promise
that our taxpayers expect us
to keep. They don’t expect us
to hire some consulting firm.
They don’t expect us to send
a giant chunk of cash to some
tech company.”
Browning contested Her-
nberg’s interpretation of the
proposed budget, saying they
were one-time investments in
improving the college’s web-
site and conducting a review
of Blue Mountain’s programs,
moves that will better position
the college for the future.
At a time when BMCC is
facing increasing competi-
tion from nearby community
colleges in Washington and
trade schools, Browning said
the staffing cuts could actually
help with recruitment.
“We’re not actually offering
fewer classes,” he said “We’re
having fewer people offer the
classes that we do currently
have, and we’ll be offering
new and different approaches
to some of the outcomes so
that (students are) better em-
ployable upon completion.
The assertion that we’re offer-
ing fewer classes is simply not
borne out in the data.”
While BMCC is holding
firm on its cuts, the faculty
union is not treating them as
a settled issue. Hernberg said
the union plans to explore its
legal options and is also plan-
ning a “vigorous” public cam-
paign to convince the college
to reconsider its plans.
“We believe that there is a
sacred trust between this com-
munity, these educators and
our students, and we’re going to
do everything we can to protect
that,” he said.
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