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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9 Herald Sports New-look Tigers win baseball opener Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports Stanfield beats White Salmon in five innings UP NEXT Stanfield travels north to take on Tri- Cities Prep for a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. Local slate By ERIC SINGER STAFF WRITER STANFIELD — Under a blue sky and a light breeze on a warm Monday after- noon, Stanfield/Echo junior Devan Craig put together a quiet performance in the batter’s box. He finished the day 0-for-1 with one strike- out but reached base twice via a walk and a hit-by-pitch. However, Craig’s per- formance was still notable: it was the very first base- ball game of his life. After participating in track and field as a sophomore, Craig decided to give baseball a try this spring and made his debut as Stanfield’s starting right fielder Monday. “I was really nervous in the beginning,” Craig said, “but I got over it after that.” He was part of a new-look Stanfield lineup that saw six new starters from last year’s opening day lineup. But even with the new faces, the Tigers brought home a familiar result as they defeated Columbia White Salmon 12-2 in five innings. “It just feels great,” Craig said of the victory. “We wanted it really bad.” Craig also made a pair of tough outs in right field during the game, making the correct reads on line drives — with the sun directly in his line of sight — which can be difficult plays, no matter the experience level. “He’s an athlete out there in right field,” head coach Brad Rogers said of Craig. “He’s been working really hard, our outfield coach (Scott) Morris has been PREP BASEBALL Friday Heppner at Irrigon (DH), 11 a.m. Umatilla at Portland Christian (DH), 3:30 p.m. Pilot Rock at Riverside, 4 p.m. Saturday Stanfield at Tri-City Prep (WA) (DH), 11 a.m. La Salle Prep at Hermiston, 12 p.m. PREP SOFTBALL Friday Enterprise at Heppner (DH), 1 p.m. Irrigon at Pendleton Freshmen (DH), 3 p.m. Umatilla at Portland Christian (DH), 3:30 p.m. Hermiston at St. Helens, 4 p.m. Saturday Tri-Cities Prep (WA) at Echo (DH), 11 a.m. Hermiston at Hillsboro, 12 p.m. Pendleton at St. Helens, 12 p.m. PREP TRACK AND FIELD Friday Riverside at Ontario Icebreaker, 3:45 p.m. Saturday Irrigon at Richland Track and Field Jam- boree (WA), 11:30 a.m. STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Stanfield’s Damien Curiel looks to throw home after tagging White Salmon’s Davis Koester out at second base in the Tigers’ 21-2 win against the Bruins on Monday in Stanfield. working hard with him and we’re really happy to get him.” Stanfield (1-0) scored all of their runs in the second and fifth innings, using a mix of patience at the plate and aggressiveness on the base paths. The Tigers had only four hits for the game, but worked 10 walks, four hit-by-pitches and stole six bases. Eight of the 12 runs came in the second inning when the Tigers sent 14 batters to the plate and worked through three different Bruins pitch- ers. Justin Keeney gave the Tigers their first lead at 2-1 with an RBI single up the middle and TJ Smith made it a 5-1 game with a two-RBI single that skipped past the third baseman. Later in the inning, Damien Curiel — who fin- ished 2-for-2 with two runs, three RBI, three stolen bases and two walks — busted it open to a 7-1 lead when he flipped a single into shal- low right-center field that brought in a pair of runs. Makiah Blankenship’s sac- rifice fly brought home Shayne Keltz to close the scoring in the inning. After going down qui- etly in the third and fourth innings, the Tigers got some offense started again fol- lowing an error on White Salmon to get Keeney on base. That brought up Brody Woods, Keltz and Curiel — all of whom worked walks to bring in one run and load the bases with two outs with a 8-1 lead. Blankenship appeared to end the inning with a grounder to shortstop, but the throw short-hopped the first baseman and allowed Woods to score and Keltz and Curiel, too, after the throw to home got by the catcher to seal the victory. “This feels great,” Rog- ers said of the victory. “I was just looking for us to come out and compete, and get better and have fun.” Stanfield’s pitchers had a solid day’s work on the mound, as Woods, Smith and Curiel combined to no-hit the Bruins. Woods, Stanfield’s lone returning pitcher with major varsity experience, got the start and allowed one run, struck out four and walked three in two innings. He struggled to command his fastball in the first inning, walking the first three bat- ters of the game to load the bases. However, he induced an easy groundout and notched two strikeouts with his curveball to escape with only one run allowed. He came back in the sec- ond locked in, breezing through a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and a flyout on only 15 pitches. “He’s got that tough- ness,” Rogers said of Woods. “To be honest, we were going to tell him he was coming out after the first with 30-ish pitches, but he said ‘I want to go another PREP TENNIS Thursday Umatilla vs. Weston-McEwen, 3 p.m. Hermiston at Southridge (WA), 3:30 p.m. Stanfield/Echo at Riverside, 4 p.m. (inning).’ So we gave him another inning and he came back and proved himself. “Kind of a slow start, but first game of the season, you’re going to have some of that.” Aside from being the sea- son opener of his second year as the varsity baseball coach at Stanfield, Mon- day’s win also had a spe- cial meaning to Rogers on a personal level. Rogers is an alumnus of Columbia High School, and the current Bru- ins team featured several kids that are the children of Rogers’ high school friends. “That was pretty neat to see,” Rogers said. ———— R H E CWS 101 00 — 2 0 5 SHS 080 04 — 12 4 3 WHITE SALMON — S. McMahon, J. Musgrove (2), D. Raether (2) and T. Web- ster. STANFIELD — B. Woods, T. Smith (3), D. Curiel (4) and A. Renner. W — B. Woods, L — S. McMahon. Mansanarez: All-Star Classic a taste of what’s to come KENNEWICK, Wash. — Add a herself and was selected to the first team 7-foot-3 senior, mix in 19 first-time All-MCC. The duo made big contributions all-conference selections and throw in a to the Braves, who narrowly lost their junior who is nearing 1,700 career points quarterfinal matchup in the Class 3A state to get nearly four hours of some of the tournament. most entertaining basketball all season. Or Clare Eubanks, who has no imme- diate relation to Oregon State No, it was not a playoff game or a state championship nor freshman Drew Eubanks. The was it a rivalry game that spans two-time All-MCC selection decades and decades. On Sat- averaged 10.9 points for Chi- urday, the best of the best from awana this season, which fin- ished 19-5 overall and 13-1 in Yakima and Tri-Cities donned conference play to finish atop the white and black uniforms and MCC. played alongside each other in The talent of the handful of the SWX Right Now All-Star girls on the court Saturday is just Classic. Marked as the inaugural event, a taste of what Hermiston will ALEXIS Saturday’s game at Kamikan face. Moving from just a four- MANSANAREZ team conference where their only High School also starred some familiar faces. Both Maddy Juul real competition was their cross- and Ryne Andreason of Hermiston, and county rival, the Bulldogs will have their Pendleton’s Kalan McGlothan, made the work cut out for them this offseason. 30-plus mile trip north. But for the Bull- But it’s not just the girls that will see a dogs, it was more than just a case to lace jump in the level of competition. On the up their sneakers and take the court again. boys side, Andreason shared the ball with Next year, Hermiston will be facing a guys who he’ll have to battle against next new crop of competition when it moves to year. the WIAA and players from seven of the While still plenty of talented seniors eight Mid-Columbia Conference schools graced the boys roster, again it was the were in attendance. junior class that shined. Within the 10-minute quarters, the local Perhaps the most impressive was Chi- kids fared well. Juul notched two points, awana’s Matthew Kroner. He came to the grabbed two rebounds and dished out one All-Star Classic in a unique pair of shorts, assist. gray and black camouflage, and had the Juul shared time with two-time first most energy of any player despite tell- team All-South Central Athletic Confer- ing other players how tired he was at each ence players in Ali Martineau and Aaliyah break. Anderson and 6-foot-4 senior Alicia Oatis Kroner only scored nine points in the of Kennewick, who is the No. 2 MCC game but during the season he averaged scorer with 17.5 points per game. 13.4 points for the Hawks, who made it all While the seniors accounted for nearly the way to the quarterfinals of the Class 4A half of the team’s 91 total points — 44 state tournament. points split between seven players includ- It’s not just Kroner who Hermiston ing Juul and McGlothan — and had will have to look out for. Pasco’s Diego impressive performances, it was this year’s Gutierrez, the team’s top scorer and Tay- lor Hamada of Walla Walla that stands at junior class that showed up and will give 6-foot-3 are just a few other names that the Bulldogs some trouble next year in will start to sound familiar come next league play. Take Kamiakin junior Oumou Toure. year. The 5-foot-11 guard is a two-time MCC While the Division I prospects of the Player of the Year and has scored 1,686 senior class playing Saturday will grace points in her high school career. On Sat- televisions next year and the OSAA will urday, she scored 14 points in almost 16 be short two talented squads, watching minutes of play. the Bulldogs compete with higher cali- Or Toure’s teammate, Alexa Hazel. The ber teams paired with a shorter travel time fellow junior has netted over 1,000 points should make next season a fun one. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMANDA RAY/YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Action from the boys SWX Classic all-star game between teammates on the Tri-City team, including Hermiston’s Ryne Andreason (1) and Chiawana’s Matthew Kroner (12) at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, Wash., on Saturday. Yakima defeated Tri-Cities, 131-106.