WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
Herald Sports
New-look Tigers win baseball opener
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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.