Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2018)
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2018 SPORTS New course hosts first professional tournament Disc golf tourney draws a crowd of competitors “Come out and play any time ... We want people to learn how to play.” STORY AND PHOTOS BY JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER The grass was a little taller than most competitors were used to at the first Pro- fessional Disc Golf Associa- tion tournament at Hermis- ton Desert Disc Golf. The course — which started with nine holes last year and recently acquired a back nine — presented a unique high-desert terrain for 69 amateur and profes- sional-level golfers at the Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation Open, sponsored by Dynamic Discs and hosted by the Umatilla Disc Golf Club. “We had 72 spots, so 69 is a pretty good turnout, especially for being the first one we’re having,” orga- nizer Ginger Wilkinson said. At 7,492 feet, the new course is one of the biggest in the region. “It’s long,” said Chris Muller, who came down from Richland to compete. “It’s a big boy course.” Muller, who was prepar- ing to putt into one of the metal baskets that make up the “holes” on the course, said the trick to a good putt was to get a lot of spin on the disc and to have a “good pre-putting routine.” While casual users of the course might just play with a single disc, the PDGA- ranked players each came prepared with a backpack full of discs in various weights to be used as every- thing from a distance driver to a putter, factoring in wind and other variables. Alex McDannold said he has been playing in tournaments since 1999, but the sport has really taken off in recent years. “When I first started with a club I was the 77th mem- ber, and now you go to a course and there are hun- dreds of people,” he said. It was his second time playing the Hermiston Des- ert Disc Golf course, and he Matt Richmond, tournament organizer Jesse Garcia of Walla Walla tees off on his first shot of the Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation Open in Hermiston Saturday. Caleb Joiner of Yakima, Washington, left, putts at the Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation Open. said it was a “cool” course to play on. Much of the course is flat, with holes and tees interspersed with tall grass and sagebrush, but includes some ridges and trees. Sec- tions of tall grass were mowed down to form the greens and fairways, while organizers marked off out of bounds sections and bun- kers. Wilkinson said one of the fun things about mowing the course (many courses are in parks where all grass is already mowed) was that organizers could change it a little each year. Before the first round of the tournament started, Jesse Garcia of Walla Walla was warming up with a few other players. He pointed to Kevin Mann of Kennewick and said his goal for the day was to beat “that guy right there.” “We’ve been battling it out the whole year,” he said. Garcia and Mann were some of the 13 people in the pro division registered to compete in the two-day tournament, while others in the amateur division battled amongst themselves. Most of the players were men, but there were a handful of female and junior-level players registered. Most of the players from around the region knew each other from past tournaments, and there was plenty of jok- ing around on the course. Wilkinson said the camara- derie of the sport was one of the things she enjoyed most about it. Organizer Matt Rich- mond said people don’t have to be a PDGA-ranked player to use the Hermiston course — the more the mer- rier, and no one should be intimidated. “Come out and play any time,” he said. “If you see people playing, feel free to come up and ask questions. We’re not a snobby com- munity. We want people to learn how to play.” Scores and rankings of all registered players can be found online at www.disc- golfscene.com. The Hermiston Desert Disc Golf Course is free for anyone to use and can be accessed from the Oxbow Trail across 11th Street from Good Shepherd Medical Center. Tigers win 4th straight district title Cougars win first district title ever Woods dominant on the mound, strikes out 14 HERMISTON HERALD By ERIC SINGER STAFF WRITER STANFIELD — With only three returning starters and a host of new faces on the varsity roster this spring, it is likely that not many people expected the Stan- field baseball team to go out and win its fourth consecu- tive district championship. Except, that’s exactly what it did. After winning the East- ern Oregon League’s regu- lar season title with a 13-1 record, the Tigers secured home-field advantage for the district championship game. And on Friday after- noon, Stanfield defeated the Joseph/Enterprise/Wal- lowa squad 8-1 at Madigan Field behind a dominant performance from senior Brody Woods on the mound for the sixth district title in eight years. “Each one is terrific and it’s great for these kids,” Stanfield coach Brad Rog- ers said of the win. “Espe- cially with the group we graduated last year, I don’t think anyone but us thought we would be here again, but here we are.” Woods pitched all seven innings for the Tigers (21-5 overall) and struck out 14 batters while giving up only two hits, two walks and one run to the Eagles (19- 6). He had both his fast- ball and curveball working to near perfection, keep- ing the Eagles’ hitters off balance for his eighth dou- STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Stanfield’s Justin Keeney (8) rounds third base as Joseph’s Rylie Hayward looks on in the Tigers’ 8-1 win against the Eagles on Friday in Stanfield. ble-digit strikeout game of the season. “I was just trying to hit my spots and mix pitches up a lot,” Woods said. “A lot of their guys were sitting fastball, so I’d start them off-speed first pitch and stuff ... my (curveball) was working really good today and it had a lot of bite. I was surprised it was working that good, so I tried to stick with that a lot.” Woods got help from his Tiger teammates in the third inning as the bottom third of the lineup gave the team a spark. Makiah Blankenship singled to right, Michael Connell blooped a single to right, and Hunter McCanch put down a perfect bunt sin- gle down the third base line to load the bases with no outs. That brought Adrian Renner to the plate, and Renner jumped on a first- pitch fastball and lined it up the middle to score two runs. “It’s good to see our whole lineup doing their job and getting stuff done,” Woods said. “It’s uplift- ing knowing the bottom of the lineup is doing good, then the top of the lineup comes and we keep rolling. That’s how we’ve always worked.” Two batters later, Damian Curiel crushed a two-run double into the left-center field gap, and TJ Smith followed with a sacrifice fly RBI to give the Tigers a 5-0 lead. The Tigers then played add-on in the fourth with an RBI groundout by Renner and a RBI bloop single to right by Keeney to make it a 7-0 game. Woods added an RBI single in the sixth for the final run. “We dropped one game to them (Joseph) in league, and we knew we just had to come out and play baseball, play our game like we’re supposed to,” Woods said, “and we played pretty dang good.” Stanfield will now pre- pare to host a Class 3A Round 1 state playoff game at Madigan Field on Wednesday. ————— R H E JHS 000 001 0 — 1 2 1 SHS 005 201 X — 8 7 1 (J) C. Bathke, Staigle (6) and Z. Rams- den. (S) B. Woods and A. Renner. W — Woods, L — Bathke. 2B — D. Curiel (SHS). ECHO — The Echo Cou- gars captured the 3A Spe- cial District 1 championship was they defeated the River- side Pirates 9-3 on Saturday afternoon. The Cougars (19-6 over- all) scored three runs in the first inning and two runs in the third for an early 5-0 lead, putting pressure on the Pirates from the start. River- side did not score until the sixth, on an RBI single by Abby Hernandez to make it a 6-1 game. Echo then put the game on ice in the bot- tom of the sixth with an RBI single from Marti Huff fol- lowed by a two-run home run by Kendra Hart to make it a 9-1 game. The Pirates did get two runs back in the seventh on a two-run single by Megan Hegar, who went 2-for-4 in the game. Hernandez led the team by going a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate, while Rae Elliott was 2-for-4 with a double. The Pirates man- aged 13 hits off of Echo pitcher Alyssa Ray, but Ray stranded 11 runners. Hart and Ray each had two hits at the plate to lead the Cougars’ offense, with Ray adding a triple and Hart finishing with three runs scored. Michelle Weems also had one hit with an RBI. Ray pitched all seven innings and struck out 10. Echo will host a first- round playoff game on Wednesday, while Riverside will likely start on the road. ———— R H E RHS 000 001 2 — 3 13 1 EHS 302 013 X — 9 8 0 W — A. Ray, L — S. Wightman. 2B — R. Elliott (RHS). 3B — A. Ray (EHS). HR — K. Hart (EHS). RIVERSIDE 6, IRRI- GON 4 — At Echo, Riv- erside’s Megan Hegar and Michaela Miller both pro- duced run-scoring singles in the top of the seventh inning to push the Pirates past the Irrigon Knights 6-4 in the district semifinal. The Pirates trailed the Knights 4-3 as the seventh inning began, three outs away from possible playoff elimination. However, the Pirates started their rally when Skylar Wightman and Rae Elliott each drew a walk and JoJo Hernandez fol- lowed with a single to load the bases with nobody out. Hegar then stepped to the plate and hit a two-run sin- gle to put the Pirates on top, and then after back-to-back strikeouts, Miller ripped a run-scoring single for a key insurance run. In the bottom of the sev- enth, the Knights’ Bailey Botefuhr led off with a sin- gle up the middle. But Riv- erside’s Wightman induced a line out, pop fly out and a strikeout to seal the win. Riverside started the game with single runs scored in each of the first three innings. Irrigon scored once in the third on an RBI sin- gle by Karisma Luna, and then took the one-run lead with three runs in the sixth behind a RBI triple by Luna, a RBI bunt by Makenna Col- lins and a RBI hit from Jes- sica Cain. ———— R H E RHS 111 000 3 — 6 11 0 IHS 001 003 0 — 4 10 2 W — S. Wightman, L — M. Chapman. 2B — M. Chapman (IHS); 3B — M. Hegar (RHS); K. Luna (IHS).
