Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2016)
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2016 Herald HeraldSports Bucks, Dawgs shine in opener Teams wrap up fi rst competition with high expectations By ERIC SINGER Staff Writer On Thursday afternoon, more than 700 athletes from more than 15 schools from eastern Oregon descended on Pendleton High School for the 25th annual Buck Track Classic. It marked the ¿ rst oppor- tunity for athletes to get a crack at competition in the 2016 season, as well as the ¿ rst time for coaches to re- ally see the progression and development of their run- ners, throwers, and jumpers after only a few weeks of practice. “It gives the kids a mark to work at the rest of the season,” Pendleton coach Dustin Breshears said. “It also gives us coaches points on what to do and where to go with our workouts and practices moving forward.” After everything was completed, the Pendleton Buckaroos and Hermiston Bulldogs could only smile at their results as each team Spring power rankings: First edition T he schedule usually governing the monthly prep power rankings was disrupted due to the end of winter sports bleeding over into March. With that in mind, ,¶ll do the ¿ rst edition of the spring power rankings now, and we’ll get back to it in a couple of weeks. We’re a week into the spring sports season now, so we have some Sam data to use in ranking Barbee these. FROM THE SIDELINES Before we jump in, let’s take a look at the ¿ nal winter power rankings, shall we? 1. Hermiston wrestling: state championship (10x), four state champions (Sam Colbray 4x, Andy Wagner 1x, Bob Coleman 1x, Valen Wyse 1x). 2. Hermiston girls basketball: 24-4, fourth place in 5A OSAA Tournament 4. Stan¿ eld boys basketball: 16-6, 3rd in Columbia Basin Conference 5. Hermiston boys basketball: 13-13, lost 87-45 to Wilsonville in play-in round /et me ¿ rst say how excited , am it’s again spring. I love baseball more than I should, and the smell of leather and pine tar is one of my favorites. Okay, now that I’ve had my moment, let’s look at the area teams. . Stan¿ eld baseball: 3-0, OSAA No. 13 This stat will surprise you. It surprised me and I knew it. In three games, the Tigers have scored 48 runs and allowed...zero. Yeah. Three games. Three shut outs. Three ten-run rules. That’s domination. That’s a team that has something to prove. Included in this tear is a perfect game (from Dylan *rogan in ¿ ve innings, but still a perfect game. I don’t care what you say). They’ve scored 22 runs in a game. They’ve hit three triples in a game. They’ve had a guy get two triples in a game. This is a really good baseball team, folks, and I would suggest going to watch them play. They can do it all: play solid defense, throw strikes and get guys out, they hit line drives, they bunt, they run the bases well. It’s just a good baseball team. As someone who appreciates and loves good baseball, Stan¿ eld is a dream. Again, I would suggest making the 10-minute drive and heading down to Madigan Field. It’ll be worth it. . Umatilla baseball: 2-0, OSAA No. 1. I tweeted this out on Monday. I know it’s early. I know. But this is awesome for a struggling program. The Vikings are 2-0 and the top-ranked team in the 3A division. How cool is that? How cool is that for the players, who came to practice every day last year while they lost most of their games? How cool is it for the coach, Dave Dever, who has cultivated improvement so soon? How cool is it for the school, that they can boast successful athletics in each of the three seasons? Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. 1 2 See RANKINGS, A12 had very successful days. For Pendleton, the team did much better than the coaches had anticipated. “I was very pleased and surprised ... a lot of the kids did way better than we had expected,” Breshears said. “We had kids hitting (per- sonal records) and beating times from last year in just the ¿ rst meet, which is very exciting as a coach.” One of those surprises was junior sprinter Soren Wolf, who in his ¿ rst year Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Pendleton senior Lukas -RKQVRQFOHDUVIHHW LQFKHVLQWKHSROHYDXOW 7KXUVGD\GXULQJWKH%XFN 7UDFN&ODVVLFLQ3HQGOHWRQ as a member of the track and ¿ eld team, earned the top time in the boys 100 meter dash at 11.69 sec- onds, and was a key cog in the Buckaroos 4x100 meter relay team that earned the top time of 45.11. “He’s been a part of our cross country team for the last two years and we ¿ nal- ly got him to come out for track this year,” Breshears said. “He’s very talented but still very raw in the sport, but he’s a true gam- er and will do whatever we ask.” Two performances the Buckaroo coaches were not surprised at were seniors Nolan Bylenga and Del- aney Clem, as each showed their talents on Thursday. Bylenga was a part of both the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relay teams that took ¿ rst place, and earned the top times in both the 400 meters (51.49) and the 1500 me- ters (4:16.95), while Clem breezed to victories in the 1500 meters (5:17.84) and the 3000 meters (11:27.55). For Hermiston, the Bull- dogs showed that their strengths in 2016 are in the sprints on the girls side and distance and ¿ eld events on the boys side. Junior sprinter Audrey Lincoln just barely took the top time in the 100 meter dash with a 12.99 — barely beating Monument fresh- man Sophia Pettit’s time of See TRACK, A11 GROGAN GOES PERFECT IN 2016 DEBUT Junior righty strikes out 12 in fi ve innings By SAM BARBEE Staff Writer Stan¿ eld baseball coach Bryan Johnson is depending on talented right-hander Dylan Grogan to be a foundational piece to the Tigers’ pitching staff in 2016 as they en- deavor to win their third straight 3A Eastern Oregon League title. If Thursday’s performance was any indication, Johnson won’t have to fret much about the lanky junior. Grogan spun an abbreviated perfect game in his 2016 debut, tossing ¿ ve full innings allowing zero baserun- ners while striking out 12 Union Bobcats in just 57 pitches as the Ti- gers throttled the Bobcats 16-0. “You can’t ask for much more out of the gate,” Johnson said of the win. “The kids were focused and dialed it in.” Grogan was effective and ef- ¿ cient from the ¿ rst pitch. His mid-80s fastball was too much for Union hitters, and he deftly mixed in change-ups and breaking balls to keep the hitters off balance. He re- lied on the heater though, not want- ing to speed up the Bobcat bats, which were consistently behind the hard fastball. In the top of the second inning, Grogan struck out the side using nothing but fastballs against the four, ¿ ve and six hitters in Union’s order. It was a demonstration of what Grogan can do if he throws strikes, something he struggled with as a sophomore. Of the 57 pitches, 46 were strikes. He threw three or more balls in an inning just twice. “Dylan’s biggest thing this year was just throwing strikes,” Johnson said, adding he threw about 80 per- cent strikes. “And he did that. Good velocity. He was dialed in and it was good.” Grogan, though, wasn’t overly excited about his stellar pitching STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE 6WDQÀHOGEDVHEDOOFRDFK%U\DQ-RKQVRQLQEOXHJUHHWVMXQLRU'\ODQ*URJDQDIWHUWKHULJKWKDQGHUVWUXFN RXWGXULQJDSHUIHFWJDPHLQDZLQ7KXUVGD\RYHU8QLRQ performance. The normally lev- el-headed and quiet Grogan, who also stars in football and basketball, was more focused on his team than his individual statistics. “The most important thing is Stan¿ eld won,” he said. He said he received a bit of rib- bing from his teammates about let- ting some at-bats go too long, but most of it was good-natured. Offensively, Stan¿ eld was bal- anced, well-rounded and received contributions from the entire order. Six Tigers had two or more hits. Three Tigers had two or more RBI, and eight Tigers had at least one run batted in. Eight Tigers scored runs, and Stan¿ eld batters struck out just four times. It was a departure from the be- ginning of last season for Stan¿ eld, which Johnson described as “lazy À y ball disease.” The Tigers strug- gled staying on top of the ball, pop- ping everything up. Stan¿ eld lost its ¿ rst three games of 2015. “That’s sort of been our goal, see how many balls we can hit hard,” Johnson said. “In practice we’re tallying that up in (batting practice). We had eight to 10, I think. So, that’s some good quality at-bats.” Brody Woods had the standout offensive performance, going 2-for- 4 with a double and four RBI in his varsity debut. Thyler Monkus was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Keith Wampler was 3-for- 4 with a run, an RBI and a nice bunt single to start the bottom of the sec- ond. Monkus led off the ¿ rst with a looping single into left, and even- tually scored on a Grogan ¿ elder’s choice to take a 1-0 lead. The one- run lead would last until the third, when Stan¿ eld broke things open in a big way. The Tigers sent 15 batters to the plate in the third, scoring ten runs on eight hits. Grogan had two hits, See BASEBALL, A12 STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE 6WDQÀHOGULJKW\'\ODQ*URJDQ GHOLYHUVDSLWFK7KXUVGD\GXULQJ KLVSHUIHFWJDPHDQGD7LJHU ZLQRYHU8QLRQDW0DGLJDQ)LHOG Hermiston sweeps aside Liberty Bulldogs get strong performances from Kopacz, Naylor By SAM BARBEE Staff Writer The Hermiston Bulldogs used a seven-run second inning in the opener of a doubleheader to down the Liberty Falcons 9-2, then got a three-run go-ahead double from Breyanna Naylor in the bottom of the third to give them a 6-4 win in ¿ ve innings and a sweep of the Falcons on Friday at Rocky Heights Elementary in Hermiston. “I couldn’t be more excited,” Hermiston coach Kate Gree- nough said. “The girls carried over their enthusiasm from Game 1 to Game 2, and they didn’t stop. There was not one point where I thought they would cool down. So I couldn’t be more proud of them, and it’s every exciting for them to win two games for them to know that they can.” STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston Mikayla Kopacz is greeted at home plate after hitting a three- UXQKRPHULQWKH%XOOGRJVZLQDJDLQVW/LEHUW\LQWKHÀUVWJDPHRID doubleheader Friday in Hermiston. The theme of Friday’s games was capitalizing on mistakes. Liberty committed ¿ ve errors in Hermiston’s 6-4 win, and booted four balls in the Bulldogs’ 9-2 victory. It was a reversal of fortune from Hermiston’s 10-3 loss to Ridgeview earlier this week, when the Ravens scored four un- earned runs in the ¿ rst inning. Friday, it was the Falcons’ turn to hand the opposition outs, giv- ing Hermiston ample opportuni- ties to score runs, which it did consistently. Hermiston turned a Falcon error into a run three sep- arate times over the course of the doubleheader. “That’s what happened on Tuesday, but it was the other way around,” Greenough said. “We gave away outs, and they scored runs. So, today it was our turn. But we didn’t stop. We didn’t just score on those errors.” Hermiston’s offense was led by Mikayla Kopacz who was 5 for 6 with a double, a ho- mer, three RBI’s and three runs scored. Breyanna Naylor added a 3-for-5 day with a double, three RBI and two runs scored. Down 2-0 early in the opener, Kopacz led off the second with a single, and Julissa Almaguer fol- lowed with a walk. Naylor sin- gled to load the bases and Alex Barton walked to bring in Ko- pacz. Kiersten Miller reached on an error, scoring Almaguer. Then Kylie Hinkley singled, driving in Naylor. After Jamie Hinkley popped up, Becca Englebrecht walked home Barton and Sydney See BULLDOGS, A11
