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).