INSIDE: COMICS, OPINIONS & CLASSIFIEDS
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021
COLLEGE
SOFTBALL
Ducks open season
with shutout wins
Oregon softball
opened its 2021 season
with a pair of shutouts.
Allee Bunker had five
RBIs as the No. 10 Ducks
topped Weber State 9-0
in six innings, and Haley
Cruse had three doubles
and Samaria Diaz and
Raegan Breedlove com-
bined for a five-inning
perfect game in an 8-0
win over Montana Friday
afternoon at Grand Can-
yon in Phoenix.
In the opener, UO
and WSU were scoreless
through four before the
Ducks broke through for
a five-run fifth.
Terra McGowan drove
in Alyssa Brito on a sacri-
fice fly to get the scoring
started. Two batters later
Bunker cleared the bases
with a three-run triple
and Ariel Carlson drove
her in with an RBI single.
McGowan drove in
another in the sixth, as
Rachel Cid followed with
an RBI single and Bunker
added a two-run double.
Brooke Yanez struck
out eight over five innings
and Makenna Kliether-
mes struck out two in a
perfect sixth.
Against Montana,
Cruse led off with a dou-
ble and Bunker drove her
in for an early 1-0 lead.
Cruse, McGowan and Cid
each had RBI doubles to
make it 4-0 after two.
Shaye Bowden hit a
two-run double and Cruse
drove in another on an ex-
tra-base hit and McGowan
brought her in with a sin-
gle as Oregon made it 8-0
after three. Cruse tied the
program record for dou-
bles in a game.
Diaz struck out four in
3.2 innings and Breedlove
struck out one in 1.1 in-
nings of relief.
Oregon takes on We-
ber State and Grand Can-
yon at 12:30 p.m. and
5 p.m. Pacific Saturday,
respectively.
bendbulletin.com/sports
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Ducks QB Tyler Shough entering transfer portal
BY RYAN THORBURN
The (Eugene) Register-Guard
Oregon will have a new
starting quarterback in 2021.
Tyler Shough, who com-
pleted 63.5% of his passes for
1,559 yards with 13 touch-
downs and six interceptions
in 2020 after replacing four-
year starter Justin Herbert, an-
nounced Friday he plans to en-
ter the NCAA transfer portal.
The 6-foot-5, 221-pound
redshirt sophomore initially
vowed to return to compete
for his starting spot after split-
ting time with Anthony Brown
during the Pac-12 champion-
ship win over USC and the Fi-
esta Bowl loss to Iowa State.
Shough, who joins redshirt
freshman Cale Millen as the
second Oregon quarterback to
leave the program this offsea-
son, will be eligible to play im-
mediately somewhere else as a
graduate transfer.
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian file
Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough gets past Oregon State’s Jaydon
Grant to score a touchdown during a game in November in Corvallis.
“I’m going to take what’s
right in front of me and keep
working hard. There’s obvi-
ously no decision that’s being
made,” Shough, who is from
Chandler, Arizona, said when
asked if he would consider en-
Minor leagues
get a reset with
regional alignment
BY RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
while coaches and staff members
wear “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts.
The idea for such a visible state-
ment arose during a video call last
summer after the police killings of
Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and
other Black Americans gave rise to
intensified calls for social justice.
Pitt’s women’s program is largely
comprised of white athletes, and
simply telling their Black teammates
they had their unconditional sup-
port wasn’t enough.
Putting on a shirt before a meet
— only to pull it off while on the
competition floor — wasn’t enough.
A sticker on their bag wasn’t
enough.
Even putting together a public
service announcement in which the
Panthers vowed to “promote active
change” wasn’t enough.
NEW YORK — Major League Base-
ball has reorganized its minor leagues in
a 120-team regional alignment.
MLB released a plan Friday for two
Triple-A divisions, and three divisions
each for Double-A, High-A and Low-A.
Forty affiliates were dropped from 2019,
the last season under the old minor
league system, and the remaining teams
were offered the 10-year licenses in De-
cember. All 120 accepted by Wednesday’s
deadline
The leagues have not yet been named.
Major league owners, Commissioner
Rob Manfred and his staff have not de-
cided whether to retain the traditional
names of the leagues, such as the Inter-
national and Pacific Coast at Triple-A,
the Eastern, Southern and Texas at Dou-
ble-A and the California, Florida State
and South Atlantic, which had been at
Class A.
For now, MLB is calling the minor
league groupings Triple-A East and
West, Double-A Central, Northeast and
South, High-A Central, East and West,
and Low-A East, Southeast and West.
There are geographic subdivisions within
each league.
Triple-A teams for now remain sched-
uled to open 144-game schedules at the
start of April but are likely to be pushed
back until the start of May because of the
pandemic.
Double-A teams, scheduled for 138
games each, and High-A and Low-A
teams, with 132 games apiece, are for
now slated to open in early May.
Top minor leaguers probably will
spend April at alternate training camps,
used by MLB teams to keep potential cal-
lups in shape last year, when the entire
minor league schedule was canceled due
to the virus.
Regular-season schedules are to be an-
nounced next week. Schedules will be re-
gionalized and include six-game series to
reduce travel and cut expenses, a person
familiar with the planning told The As-
sociated Press. The person spoke on con-
dition of anonymity because that detail
was not announced.
Minor league postseason formats have
not yet been determined because of the
pandemic.
Each franchise’s top four affiliates will
include one team apiece at Triple-A, Dou-
ble-A, High-A and Low-A. Additional
clubs are allowed at spring training com-
plexes and in the Dominican Republic.
MLB ended the Professional Baseball
Agreement that governed the relation-
ship between the majors and minors.
The minors are being run from MLB’s
office in New York under the supervision
of Peter Woodfork, MLB’s new senior
vice president of minor league opera-
tions and development, taking over from
the Florida-based National Association
of Professional Baseball Leagues, which
had governed the minors since 1901.
See Statement / B2
See Baseball / B2
Making a
statement
WOMEN’S
COLLEGE HOOPS
Ducks preparing
for No. 5 Stanford
— The Oregonian
with 2020 recruits Jay Butter-
field and Robby Ashford.
“We have a talented quarter-
back room,” coach Mario Cris-
tobal said on signing day ear-
lier this month. “I’m sure that
will be a storyline in the spring
as we roll into it. We have some
guys that have done a good job,
a couple young guys that never
really get mentioned in Robby
and Jay that have also done
a really good job developing
themselves.
“I look forward to watching
that battle and really structur-
ing practice so that there’s fair
opportunity.”
Oregon’s offense returns
running backs C.J. Verdell, Tra-
vis Dye and Sean Dollars, wide
receivers Johnny Johnson, Jay-
lon Redd and Devon Williams,
tight ends Cam McCormick,
D.J. Johnson, Spencer Webb
and Patrick Herbert and all five
starting offensive linemen.
BASEBALL
WOMEN’S COLLEGE GYMNASTICS
— The Oregonian
EUGENE — Taylor
Chavez will miss a third
straight game when Ore-
gon hosts No. 5 Stanford
on Monday.
Ducks coach Kelly
Graves said Chavez, who
missed the games against
UC Davis and Arizona, will
be out again and Maddie
Scherr, who also missed
the last two games, is still
going through the return-
to-play protocols and it’s
uncertain whether she’ll
be available.
Graves confirmed
Chavez, who also missed
the games against USC
and UCLA in early Janu-
ary to be with her ailing
grandmother, had been
home in Arizona again
recently but has since re-
turned to Eugene.
Chavez, who is averag-
ing 5.0 points and 2.2 as-
sists, is arguably Oregon’s
best defender and a vet-
eran guard at running the
point. She returned to the
starting lineup against
Washington and Wash-
ington State .
On a team that lacks
experience and is still
finding its identity,
Chavez’s poise and lead-
ership on both ends of
the floor is something the
Ducks sorely need back.
“The games she’s been
out, we have definitely
missed her ,” Graves said.
“ We need her back. “
Scherr (3.1 points, 1.9
rebounds) attended Mon-
day’s game and has been
a significant rotation
player off the bench.
tering the NCAA transfer por-
tal after the awkward rotation
with Brown in Fiesta Bowl.
“I’m going to control what I
can control and work hard the
entire offseason. I’m going to
keep proving myself.
“It seems like a lot of people
are going to keep doubting me,
and I’m going to keep showing
them what I can do and keep
proving myself right, because I
know my abilities and I know I
can help and do for this team.”
Shough’s quarterback effi-
ciency rating of 160.4 led the
Pac-12, but after a fast start
in offensive coordinator Joe
Moorhead’s scheme he threw
two costly interceptions during
the loss at Oregon State and
struggled against California’s
defense in another road loss.
Brown, who joined the pro-
gram as a graduate transfer
from Boston College last year,
finished 15-for-23 passing for
164 yards and two touchdowns
while taking his first snaps at
Oregon in in the Pac-12 cham-
pionship and Fiesta Bowl.
Five-star 2021 recruit Ty
Thompson will also compete
for the job this spring, along
Viral and vital, college
gymnasts finding their voice
Keith Birmingham/The Orange County Register
UCLA Bruins gymnast Nia Dennis competes in the floor exercise against BYU during a meet at UCLA in Los Angeles on
Wednesday. A floor routine that Dennis performed last month that included music by hip-hop icons Kendrick Lamar and
Tupac Shakur and intended to shine a light on Black excellence went viral.
“The purpose of my floor routine is to open the eyes of those around
me and also shine a light on Black excellence.”
BY WILL GRAVES
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH —
S
amantha Snider
remembers
the rules —
be they real
or implied — during her
collegiate gymnastics career at
Arkansas.
This is how you’re going to
do your hair. This is how you’re
going to do your makeup. This
is how you’re going to represent
the program.
— Nia Dennis, UCLA gymnast
“There was very much this mes-
sage, ‘You need to fit in this box,’”
said Snider, now the head coach at
the University of Pittsburgh.
Snider, who jokes she often felt
like the only Puerto Rican in the
state during her time competing for
the Razorbacks in the mid-2000s,
isn’t being critical. Her experience
at Arkansas was simply reflective of
the culture at large in the sport at
the time.
A time, it seems, that is finally
over, particularly at the NCAA level.
From Pittsburgh to California, fe-
male gymnasts are using their plat-
form to empower, educate and bring
light to causes they believe in.
When the Panthers host Temple
on Sunday at the Petersen Events
Center, they will compete in leotards
with “BLM” emblazoned in all its
sequined glory on their left arms,