FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • THUrsday, aprIL 15, 2021
MEN’S COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
Arizona hires
Gonzaga assistant
Arizona has hired long-
time Gonzaga assistant
Tommy Lloyd as its men’s
basketball coach.
The school said
Wednesday that Lloyd
will receive a five-year
contract, pending ap-
proval by the Arizona
Board of Regents.
Lloyd replaces Sean
Miller, who was fired after
12 years on April 7 amid
an NCAA infractions in-
vestigation.
“After speaking with a
tremendous pool of can-
didates and with so many
in and out of the college
basketball world, it be-
came clear that Tommy
has the passion, the ex-
perience, the knowledge,
the coaching and recruit-
ing acumen and the drive
to lead us to champion-
ships,” Arizona athletic di-
rector Dave Heeke said in
a statement.
The 46-year-old Lloyd
spent the past 20 years as
an assistant to Few, help-
ing turn Gonzaga into a
national powerhouse.
Lloyd was Few’s right-
hand man during the run
and has proven to be an
adept recruiter, particu-
larly overseas.
“I am extremely grate-
ful to President (Robert)
Robbins and Dave Heeke
for the incredible oppor-
tunity to lead one of the
country’s most storied
men’s basketball pro-
grams,” Lloyd said in a
statement.
Arizona has been in
the NCAA’s crosshairs
since a 2017 FBI investi-
gation into shady recruit-
ing practices led to the
arrest of 10 people.
Arizona was hit with
nine allegations of mis-
conduct in a Notice of Al-
legations issued last year.
bendbulletin.com/sports
PREP SOFTBALL
Freshman
fortitude
Johns steps into the circle for
defending state champion Ridgeview
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
REDMOND —
T
he morning of Ridgeview’s season
opener, text messages in the
softball team’s group chat began
flooding into Kilby Johns’ phone.
The messages confirmed that the freshman
would be starting in the pitcher’s circle for
the defending state champion Ravens against
Summit.
“I’m trying not to get too nervous,” Johns
said. “And then we got out on the field and
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Ridgeview pitcher Kilby Johns sizes up the batter and prepares to deliver during Tuesday’s softball game against
Summit at Ridgeview High School in Redmond.
you have a different feeling.”
Nerves were to be expected in a first-time start
for a program with the prowess of Ridgeview, which
was playing in its first game Tuesday night since the
state title game in June 2019.
The outfield fence at Ridgeview is lined with In-
termountain Conference championship banners,
which the Ravens have won every year since 2014,
and in dead center field, a large “2019 State Champi-
ons” banner.
The state title was achieved in part by 2019 5A
state Pitcher of the Year, Allicitie Frost, now playing
for Portland State.
“I liked her demeanor. This pitcher is going
to be good, but she is just young at playing
competitively, so this competition is really
good for her.”
— Sandy Fischer, Ridgeview softball coach
With big shoes to fill, Johns quickly settled in with
two strikeouts in the opening frame, which set the
tone for a shutout performance against the Storm.
Johns struck out eight and gave up just two hits in
the Ravens’ 15-0 win in four innings.
“I liked her demeanor,” said Ridgeview coach
Sandy Fischer.
“This pitcher is going to be good, but she is just
young at playing competitively, so this competition
is really good for her.”
Starting as a freshman on opening day came as a
surprise to Johns, mainly because she has not been
pitching competitively for most of her young soft-
ball career.
See Softball / A6
— Associated Press
NWSL
Thorns eye 2nd
straight victory
After opening the
NWSL Challenge Cup with
a 2-1 victory in a match
that turned wild late, the
Portland Thorns will try
to build on that success
as they go on the road
to take on the Chicago
Red Stars on Thursday
(4:30 p.m., Paramount+).
Chicago is coming off
a scoreless draw against
Houston in its Challenge
Cup opener. The Red Stars
outshot the Dash 11-3 but
managed just two shots
on goal. Chicago held
Houston without a shot
on goal, however.
“We’re excited to be in
this position where we’ve
got to come into this
place and look to impose
ourselves and cause prob-
lems,” Thorns coach Mark
Parsons told reporters
Wednesday.
Both teams will be
without some of their top
players, who remain away
on international duty.
But the Thorns also will
be without forward Sim-
one Charley and coach
Parsons after each drew
a red card late in last Fri-
day’s opener against Kan-
sas City.
Forward Morgan
Weaver also was shown a
red card late after a scuf-
fle with KC NWSL’s Kristen
Edmonds, but the Thorns
successfully appealed that
decision and the league
rescinded Weaver’s red
card on Tuesday.
The Thorns already sit
atop their division in the
Challenge Cup stand-
ings. After facing Chicago,
the Thorns will have two
more matches in division
play. The two division win-
ners will then meet in the
Challenge Cup champion-
ship May 8.
— The Oregonian
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
BASEBALL
MLB to experiment with
moving back mound in minors
BY RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
Ted S. Warren/AP file
Oregon State tight end Luke Musgrave, a graduate of Bend High, runs
against Washington in November in Seattle. The Beavers may look to
lean on a deep tight end class in 2021.
Oregon State intends to lean
on a deep TE group in 2021
BY NICK DASCHEL
The Oregonian
CORVALLIS — Let’s talk
tight ends. Specifically Oregon
State tight ends.
Sure, it’s not football’s sex-
iest position. The occasional
pass reception.
INSIDE
A lot of block-
ing. But for
• Ducks have
the Beavers,
strong 1-2
punch at RB,
it’s a position
A7
of significant
strength and
could be that difference maker
in 2021 if OSU is to emerge
with its first bowl berth in
eight years.
The importance of tight
ends to an offense varies wildly
in college football. At the bot-
tom is Mike Leach’s get-them-
out-of-my-program offense,
to a heavily dependent offense
like Oregon State. The Beavers’
pro-style attack heavily relies
on a tight end for nearly every
play, often two, and on rare oc-
casion, three.
Oregon State can do what
it wants at the tight end posi-
tion, as it is well-stocked with
veterans and newcomers. The
Beavers may face a team this
upcoming season with a sin-
gular better tight end, but they
shouldn’t have trouble match-
ing anyone’s duo with junior
Teagan Quitoriano and sopho-
more Luke Musgrave.
It’s hard to miss either
during Oregon State’s spring
practice. Both cut prominent
figures at 6 feet, 6 inches. Qui-
toriano carries a little more
weight at 256 pounds, vs. Mus-
grave’s 248.
There are a couple prom-
ising second-year freshmen
in Tommy Spencer and Jake
Overman that bolster a tight
end room. In seven games last
season, Oregon State’s tight
ends combined for 27 recep-
tions for 346 yards.
See Oregon State / A6
NEW YORK — Major
League Baseball wants to see
if moving back the pitcher’s
mound will increase offense.
MLB will experiment by in-
creasing the distance between
the mound and home plate
by 12 inches during a portion
of the Atlantic League season
in an effort to decrease strike-
outs and increase offense.
The pitching rubber will
be moved back to 61 feet, 6
inches starting Aug. 3 during
the second half of the inde-
pendent minor league’s sea-
son.
“It’s a direct response to
the escalating strikeout rate,
where you’re giving the hitter
approximately one one-hun-
dredth of a second of addi-
tional time to decide whether
to swing at a pitch, which has
the effect just in terms of re-
action time of reducing the
effective velocity of a pitch by
roughly 1.5 mph,” said Mor-
gan Sword, MLB’s executive
vice president of baseball op-
erations. “The purpose of the
test and hope is giving hit-
ters even that tiny additional
piece of time will allow them
to make more contact and re-
duce the strikeout rate.”
In 2019, the last full sea-
son, strikeouts set a record for
the 12th consecutive year at
42,823, up 33% from 32,189
in 2007. Strikeouts exceeded
hits the last three seasons after
never occurring before in ma-
jor league history.
MLB calculated the aver-
age fastball velocity last year
at 93.3 mph and estimated the
increased distance would de-
Lynne Sladky/AP file
Boston Red Sox’s Jackie Bradley Jr. hits a home run off Houston As-
tros pitcher Josh James during the 2018 American League Cham-
pionship Series in Houston. Major League Baseball wants to see if
moving back the pitcher’s mound will increase offense.
crease the equivalent to 91.6
mph.
The mound has been at its
current distance since 1893,
when the National League
moved the rubber back 5 feet.
Strikeouts declined from 8.5%
in 1892 to 5.2% in 1893 and
the batting average increased
from .245 in 1892 to .280.
Chicago Cubs president of
baseball operations Jed Hoyer
compared these changes to
the lowering of the pitcher’s
mound from 15 inches to 10
for the 1969 season.
“We’ve got to do something
to get more offense in the
game, whether you want to
talk about the mound being
moved back a foot, whether
you want to talk about differ-
ent ways of getting rid of the
shift, whether you want to
talk about substances on the
ball,” Hoyer said. “We need
to make adjustments. The
DH originally came of these
adjustments. The mound be-
ing lowered came from these
adjustments. And I person-
ally am of the mind of — ob-
viously, I love baseball, but
I don’t believe the rules are
written on stone tablets.”
Many baseball purists op-
pose changing distances on
the field. Commissioner Rob
Manfred has been open to
considering innovations to a
tradition-bound sport.
“That seems pretty dras-
tic, but again I think those are
things that, you know, some-
times the craziest of ideas end
up having some traction,”
New York Yankees manager
Aaron Boone said. “I think
that it’s important that you try
these things out when you’re
trying to consider different
things in a league where you
can kind of really take some
information and see how it
works out.”
See Baseball / A7