Local report: Ike boys finish fourth at Tacoma tourney

TACOMA — The Eisenhower High School boys basketball team took fourth place out of 32 teams at the Curtis Tournament in Tacoma this past weekend.

The Cadets started the tournament by beating Evergreen of Vancouver; lost to defending 2A state champions Squalicum; beat Central Catholic of Oregon; beat Decatur of Tacoma; and finished the weekend by beating Foss of Tacoma.

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Youth Baseball

Yakima Valley Peppers 19, Mount Spokane 2 (YV: Jake Evans 5 IP, 6 hits, 1 ER, 5 k’s; Derek Fife 2-4, 2b, 3 runs; Alex Fickes 1-2, 2b, 4 runs, 2 RBI; Kyle Fickes 2-2, 2 runs, 3 RBI; Stephan Schmidt 2-2, 2 2b, 3 RBI; Trent Douglass 3-4, 2b, 4 RBI).

Yakima Valley Peppers 13, Mount Spokane 3 (YV: Alex Fickes 5 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 6 k’s; Kyle Fickes 2-3, 2b, 3 runs, 3 RBI; Trent Lindemann 2-4, 2 runs, RBI; Al Noble 3-4, run, 3 RBI; Nate Hanson 1-2, 2 RBI).

6/30 What’s Happening

Selah teen shooter a  2-time state champ

Todd Peterson, a 15-year-old from Selah, missed back-to-back shots in his first group of 25 targets, then broke the next 75 straight for a 98×100 round to capture to win the junior division of Sunday’s handicap event in the Washington State Trapshooting Championships in Spokane.

Peterson also won the “C” Division in Friday’s class championship singles in the four-day Amateur Trapshooting Association event, hosted by the Spokane Gun Club. He tied with two other shooters at 97×100, then won the shootoff with a perfect 25×25 round.

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Hunter ed class coming up in Selah

A hunting education class will begin July 13 at the Selah Civic Center.

Mandatory preregistration begins Wednesday at the Civic Center, with a $5 fee payable at sign-up. Because class size is limited to 30 and hunter’s ed classes always fill up, signing up quickly is recommended.

Class hours will be 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 13-17, and then 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 18. Students must attend each class session to pass the course.

For more information, call Tom at 509-457-8039.

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Volunteers needed for St. Helens trails

Volunteers are needed for a pair of upcoming backcountry project projects at Mount St. Helens in the ongoing campaign to repair storm-damaged trails within the national volcanic monument.

Forest Service trail specialists are partnering with the Mount St. Helens Institute, Washington Trails Institute, Northwest Service Academy, Backcountry Horsemen, Northwest Trails Alliance and Mountain Bike Mutts on a summer-long schedule of volunteer work projects. The two projects in July for which volunteers are specifically needed:

• July 18-19: Repairing hiking and mountain biking trails in the Butte Camp area on the south side, working with volunteers from the Northwest Trails Alliance. (For details: www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volunteering/documents/ButteCamp.pdf)

• July 25-Aug. 2: Repairing trails in the remote Mount Margaret backcountry north of St. Helens, working with volunteers from the Mount St. Helens Institute. (For details: 360-449-7887.)

For a complete list of volunteer work parties, go online to www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volunteering/BecomeaVolcanoVolunteer.shtml.

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BIRD ALERT

Secretive but curious skulker of dense thickets, the gray catbird is heard — its common call a raspy mew that sounds like a cat — more than it is seen. This week, though, gray catbirds were observed at the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge, the Poppoff Trail and Clear Lake.

Bellevue birders visiting Fort Simcoe saw several Lewis’s woodpeckers as well as Bullock’s orioles, lazuli buntings, black-headed grosbeaks, a lark sparrow and a pair of ash-throated flycatchers among the oak trees.

A resident along Mieras Road reported a great egret busily consuming goldfish from their small pond and a single gray partridge scurrying across the lawn. Both are great birds not typically found on local yard lists.

A hike up Cowiche Canyon turned up plenty of swallows (cliff, northern rough-winged and violet-green). The canyon also held rock and canyon wrens, Say’s phoebe, lazuli bunting, Bullock’s orioles and black-headed grosbeaks.

A Parker Heights yard saw plenty of excitement as a pair of nesting western kingbirds chased and bickered at a Cooper’s hawk as it sped by. Other yard birds included two singing male lazuli buntings, and black-chinned hummingbirds that regularly visit the feeders. Their American kestrel box fledged four young and a California quail nest held 17 eggs.

The bluebird tallies from the “Vredenburgh Bluebird Trail” this week are in and it still appears that this will be a very strong year for the bluebirds. This week’s nest box totals included 43 eggs and 369 nestlings; 94 western and eight mountain bluebirds fledged this week. That makes 102 western and 29 mountain bluebirds fledged to date this year.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 509-248-1963

— Kerry L. Turley

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AROUND AND ABOUT

TRAIL WORK PARTY: Members of the All Wheelers Off Road Club and other volunteers earlier this week did back-to-back weekend work parties in support of the Department of Natural Resources near the Tree Phones Campground in the Ahtanum State Forest to help remove downed and dangerous trees that had forced a temporary closure of the area. The group logged 119 volunteer hours. Kudos to those hard-working volunteers.

WINTER ADVISORS NEEDED: The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is looking for public nominations for its agency’s snowmobile and non-motorized advisory committees. The Winter Recreation Advisory Committee is seeking a non-motorized winter sports candidate from Area 5, which represents Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat and Benton counties, as well as one for Area 1 (Northwest Washington) and an at-large candidate to represent snowmobilers.

The Snowmobile Advisory Committee is looking to fill candidate positions for Northwest Washington and North Central Washington (Okanogan, Chelan and Douglas counties), plus an at-large candidate to represent non-motorized winter sports enthusiasts. For more information on nominations, call 360-902-8684.

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ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ Tuesday hikers will hike to the Granite Peak Lookout. The hardy souls in the Tuesday group meet at 7:30 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and carpool from there, typically breaking into faster and slower groups. Next Tuesday: The Palisades.

WEDNESDAY: Mount Adams Cycling Club riders do their weekly 25-mile Naches loop ride, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Fred Meyer parking lot (near Key Bank). A faster group will begin a little later, since, after all, it won’t take them as long.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies won’t have a hike, this being the Thursday heading into the July 4 weekend. (And, no, there won’t be a Pokies hike at Pleasant Valley on Friday; that note in the Cascadian newsletter was incorrect.) The group’s next hike will be July 9, and that will be the Pleasant Valley trek.

Eric B.: rain, a horse-hair mattress and a cougar

YAKIMA, Wash. — Eric Bruntjen has been hitting the trail long and hard as he gets closer to the finish — and closer to the leaders as well. He called in this morning (Monday, June 29) at 4:43 his time, already about to hop on his mountain bike for another day of the Tour Divide mountain bike race.

Without further adieu, here’s what he had to say:

Yeah, hi, Eric Bruntjen calling from Platoro, Colorado. Pulled in last night, pulled my bike up in front of the local bar — it’s a one-bar town — there was three people on the deck waiting for me. They’d been watching me on the Internet, and I pulled in and they said ‘Come on in,’ and they made me sign a leaderboard they had printed out on the wall. There were a couple lumberjacks in there, fishing guides, they all had laptops open watching the race and talking about it. I’ll tell you, if you ever forget this is a competition, the locals will remind you. There’s no other race like this. Matthew Lee’s out front, he may be shutting this thing down today, there’s no telling. But anything can happen — I think there’s at least three or four guys that could catch him.

There’s only one Italian left, or I should say there was only one Italian left. I caught him for the last time day before yesterday outside in the desert between Salida and Del Norte. He was pushing his bike with a broken seat post — just snapped clean in half out there in the desert. Just shook his hand and left him there; nothing I can do. His race is over, I think. I guess I don’t really care what they’re saying on the Internet; that guy, he’s got guts. If you don’t speak English and you come from a different country to do this particular race, boy, your guts are bigger than the Montana sky, because this is a tough, tough race, even if you know the language. And it was great fun racing against him.

I guess I got about eight guys ahead of me. They told me in the bar yesterday they’re at least half a day ahead of me, which is probably too much for me to make up, but you never know, so I’m gonna try. I’m getting an early start today to try to beat the afternoon thunderstorms.

Things are going pretty well. Not too many mechanical issues, my body’s still holding up, starting to feel a little fatigued at the end of the day but I’ve been having some big days. The day before yesterday not so big, but I got chased back about four miles off-route by a big thunderstorm. Knocked on a rancher’s door and he let me stay in the bunkhouse; for 40 wet and moldy and muddy dollars, I got a room, no lights, no water, no heat but a working roof and what I swear to God was a horse-hair mattress. It just felt like heaven, though, compared to the weather outside.

Then yesterday had a really terrific day — four passes, two 10,000-footers and then the mack daddy, the biggest one of the whole race — Indiana Pass, 11,900 feet. Came out of Del Norte, which is I think below 8,000, and just climbed up a monster hill into the storm. But I just had great lucky yesterday with the weather; I just followed a little hole, had sun most of the way, only had to stop and hide under a tree once. When I got to the top of Indiana Pass, there was a little notch there, and the wind was blowing so hard I had to push my bike through it. But other than that I had pretty darn good weather. And then there was Stunner Pass after that, which was a little smaller one.

Coming up Conejo Pass yesterday morning, came up behind a cougar. That was … I came up right behind him, he didn’t hear me until I went over some rocks. I still had my bear bells on, and the bear bells shook and he took off into the woods. Having a great race so far, hopefully today will be another big day. Today I’m going to make it into New Mexico. Bye.

Also, on Sunday, I got an e-mail from Stephen Gleasner, the Maine artist whose 2008 Tour Divide race experiences were featured in the Herald-Republic last month to give readers an insight into just how big a challenge Eric Bruntjen would be taking on. Gleasner has been following the blog here and Eric’s leaderboard page on the Tour Divide site and has been impressed with Eric’s fortitude since the beginning. His Sunday note simply reiterated his confidence that Eric would go the distance:

Eric’s last call-in confirmed my suspicions that nothing will stop him now. He will see the border shack at Antelope Wells. It certainly ain’t over yet. There are many miles to go yet, but whatever comes up, stands in his way, he has a toolbox full of stuff to deal with whatever it is. He will see Mexico.

And that means Eric will have gone 2,780 miles — actually more than that, considering that he’s been off course at least twice and had to backtrack, and considering that it looks like some of the trail in the northern part of New Mexico has been wiped out, possibly by a flashflood, and the first two riders to reach that area have either gotten lost or been forced to go many miles off the original course in order to reach the next checkpoint.

That means that, in the next few days, Eric will have done his part to raise both consciousness toward the issues facing injured veterans and money to improve the quality of life of one specific veteran — Evan Mettie of Selah, who is left with “locked-in syndrome” as the result of bomb shrapnel during his tour in Iraq. Eric’s desire to raise money to purchase Evan’s family an all-terrain wheelchair that would allow Eric to appreciate the great outdoors once again led him to take on this tremendous challenge, and pledges have been coming in.

Not enough of them, though. In less than a week, Eric will have gone the distance for Evan Mettie, while hoping others will do their part in pledging something to tourdechair@gmail.com — a penny per mile, a nickel per mile, whatever you can afford — that will go directly to the “Evan Mettie Donation” fund at U.S. Bank.

If you’ve already done that, I salute you and Eric thanks you. God willing, perhaps one day Evan Mettie will be able to thank you himself.

If you haven’t pledged yet, well, here’s your chance.

Go the distance.

– Scott Sandsberry

Hawks fly past Bears

BOISE, Idaho — Two early runs were not enough as the Boise Hawks rallied to beat the Yakima Bears 3-2 in the opener of a three-game series Sunday at Memorial Stadium.

The Bears scored unearned runs in the first and second innings, but couldn’t give starting pitcher Chris Odegaard any more support.

Odegaard allowed just two runs on four hits in five innings of work for the Bears.

Yakima opened the scoring early when leadoff man Dan Kaczrowski scored on a wild pitch. He had reached base on a fielding error by Boise’s George Matheus.

Another error in the second inning allowed Tyrell Worthington to reach base. He would score on a double to left field by Andrew Fie.

The Hawks would get one of those runs back in the third inning, when Jose Valdez scored on a groundout by Matheus.

Kevin Soto scored the tying run on a passed ball.

Boise scored what would end up being the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth when Greg Rohan scored on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Petraitis.

Jeffry Antigua (1-1) allowed no runs in four innings of work for the victory.

Yakima’s Jake Hale (0-1) took the loss.

Mike Perconte worked the ninth inning for his first save of the season.

Pak rallies to finish 7th

RENO, Nev. — Trevor Dallman drove in the game-winning run, capping a seven-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Yakima Valley Pepsi Pak, as they beat the Napa (Calif.) Riverdogs 9-8 at the Josh Anderson Memorial Tournament.

Ethan Flory was able to shut down the Riverdogs in the top of the seventh, when he entered with two men on and no outs. He induced a pop up and got a double play to keep the deficit at six runs for Yakima Valley (20-6 overall).

The Pak sent 11 men to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, as Brad Andreas started the inning with a single, scored a run and later walked. Dallman had two singles, including the game winner, and scored a run in the inning.

Cory Urquhart had the big blast in the inning, hitting a two-run triple for the Pak.

Dallman finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBI, Garrett Olson went 2-for-4 with a RBI, and Thomas Wilcox went 1-for-4 with a RBI double for Yakima Valley.

Napa Riverdogs    003    500    0    —    8    9    1
Yakima Valley       000    200    7    —    9    12    0
Ballantine, Crandell (7), Stanier (7) and Sabloff; Johnson, Flory (7) and Andreas.
Highlights: Trevor Dallman (YV) 3-4, 3 RBI; Cory Urquhart (YV) 1-4, 2-run 3b; Garrett Olson (YV) 2-4, RBI; Thomas Wilcox (YV) 1-4, 2b, RBI; Brad Andreas (YV) 2-2, run.

Youth baseball

Brent Edwards Tournament

Championship

West Valley Baseball Club 5, North Thurston Rams 0 (Gil Plath 2-4, Steven Wagar 2-4, Jake Vetsch, 9 K, CG, SO).

Yakima Valley Peppers 12, Yakima Grays 4 (YV: Allan Noble 3-4, 2b, 2 RBI; Stephan Schmidt 2-3, 3b, RBI; Garrett Fife 2-3, 2 RBI; Chris Walker CG, 6 k’s. Yak: Jens Jensen 1-3, RBI; Kevin Duncan 1-2, run; Josh Kloster 1-3, run; Curtiss Oliva 2-3).

Scarlets Sizzler Tournament

Championship game

Yakima Valley Pepsi Juniors 8, West Valley Bees 5 (WV: Jim Nagle 2-4; Cody LaRivierre 2-4).

Third-place game

Yakima Scarlets 10, Cadet Baseball Club 8 (Yak: Sam Glazier 2-4, 2 RBI; Jared Ziegler 2-3, 2 RBI; Andrew Richardson 2-4; Josiah Mitchum 2-3, 2 RBI; Erik Sauve 5 IP, 3H, 0 ER; Trent Mottice 2 RBI).

Final tournament standings (all-stars in parenthesis): 1, Yakima Pepsi Juniors (MVP: Nick Ranger, Connor O’Malley, Justin St. Aubin); 2, West Valley Bees (Top pitcher: Tyler Ueltchi, Trevor Hunter, Jimmy Nagle); 3, Yakima Scarlets (Sam Glazier, Trevor Fink); 4, Cadet Baseball Club (Michael Woodkey, Derek Molineaux); 5, East Valley (Daniel Taylor); 6, Naches (Cory Johns).

Sedro-Woolley Tournament

Yakima Blues 10, Burlington 9 (Yak: Marcus McClurkan 2-3; Damon Lybeck 3-3; Hugo Lemus 3-run HR.)

Mudville High 5, Yakima Blues 3 (Yak: Jackson Marquis 4-5, 2 2b; Marcus McClurkan 3-4; Damon Lybeck 2-3, 2 2b; Justin Reyes CG, 3 ER.) Friday: Yakima Blues 15, Tacoma 0; Saturday: Yakima Blues 6, Sedro-Wooley 2.

All-tournament team: Hugo Lemus, Marcus McClurkan, Damon Lybeck. Pitchers: Guy Hartwig, Brandon Walton.

Youth fastpitch

Vancouver Tournament

Saturday: Eastside Thunder 5, Yakima Stealers 16-U 3; Silver Bullets 12, Stealers 9; Rip City 5, Stealers 1; Vancouver Angels 3, Stealers 0

Sunday: Stealers 4, Silver Bullets 3 (9); Rip City 8, Stealers 4

Stealers tournament highlights: Samantha Robillard 7 H, Tori Gonzalez 6 H, Catherine Boatright 6 H (GW 2RBI 2B); Ashley Van Tress 5 H.

Hargraves wins Late Model main

YAKIMA, Wash. — Erick Hargraves won the Late Model main event Saturday to cap the evening’s racing at Yakima Speedway.

Alex Kerslake finished second after winning the B dash earlier in the night.

In the Sportsman class, Randy Marshall Jr. backed up his fast lap time of 23.127 seconds  to win the main event.

Jay Younker set a track record in the Pure Stocks class with a lap of 24.410 on his way to winning the main.

Josh Parmentier won the Hornets main, while Donnie Stevens took the Bump to Pass main.

Late Models

Fast time: Owen Riddle, 19.009 seconds. B dash: Alex Kerslake, Marcus Maggard, Lenard Barthel, Bill Mills. A dash: Dan Obrist, Mike Zamora, Owen Riddle, Scott Walker. Main: Erick Hargraves, Kerslake, Gary Longley, Jesse Brown, Barthel, Maggarg, Mills, Zamoa, Walker, Ron Frazier, Jack Mondor, Ron Bemis, Obrist, Riddle.

Sportsman

Fast time: Randy Marshall Jr., 23.127. B dash: Reese Kastl, Kevin Taylor, Jesse Vincent, Terry Taylor. A dash: Marshall, Mel Patnode, Jeff Stevenson, Thomas Bescoter Sr. B heat: K. Taylor, Vincent, Dan Wilson, Bobby Stewart, T. Taylor. A heat: Stevenson, Marshall, Patnode, Benscoter, Kastl. Main: Marshall, Patnode, Benscoter, T. Taylor, Don Klang, Wilson, Stewart, K. Taylor, Kastl, Vincent, Stevenson.

Pure stocks (unofficial)

Fast time: Jay Younker, 24.410 (track record). B dash: Terry Cook, Tyson Richter, Derek Raptcheff. A dash: Joe Estep, Younker, Ron Pepper, Jeff Liebert. Heat: Younker, Raptcheff, Cook, Estepp, Richter. Main: Younker, Liebert, Pepper, Estep, Raptcheff, Cook.

Hornets

B dash: Jessica Tidrick, Keith Erickson, Anthony VanLeven, James Nortman; A dash: Ryan Kallenberger, Greg Gargett, Josh Washington, Josh Permentier; B heat: Chris Marang, Daniel Morfin, Zach Beaman, Eric Coble, Norman; A heat: Kallenberger, Washington, Parmentier, Gargett, Tim Breshears; Main: Parmentier, Morfin, Kellenberger, Washington, Gargett, Marang, Erickson, Beaman, Norman, Michael Beck, Coble, Breshears, Corey Ogen, VanLeven, Chris Morrison.

Bump to Pass

B dash: Cody Denton, Tim Stockwell, Leo Wood; A dash: Donnie Stevens, Crystal Richter, Jake Breshears; Heat: Richter, Breshears, Stevens, Denton; Main: Stevens, Breshears, Denton, Stockwell, Wood, Richter.

Sunnyside’s Gonzalez 3rd in Seattle

SEATTLE — Sunnyside’s Isley Gonzalez finished third in the women’s elite division of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half-Marathon on Saturday.

Gonzalez ran the course in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 14 seconds.

Jeffrey Stinson of Ellensburg was 77th overall in the full marathon with a time of 3:08:03. Yakima’s Lisa Garcia was 74th in the women’s division and 20th in the 40-44 age group with a time of 3:32:57.

Stanley Bostrom of Yakima (3:14:55) was sixth in the men’s 50-54 age group.

Local Top 30 age-group finishers

Half-marathon

Boys under 15: 4, Tyler Davick, Yakima, 2:38:29. Boys 15-17: 4, Joseph Matheson, Yakima, 1:27:04. Girls 15-17: 9, Hannah Kaluzny, Yakima, 1:53:17; 13, Siena Noe, Yakima, 1:57:43. Women 40-44: Lisa Berthon, Ellensburg, 1:40:44.

Marathon

Men 35-39: 12, Jeffrey Stinson, Ellensburg, 3:08:03. Men 50-54: 6, Stanley Bostrom, Yakima, 3:14:55. Women 18-24: 28, Megan Brown, Yakima, 4:01:21. Women 25-29: 26, Gretchen Bodeen, Yakima, 3:37:08. Women 40-44: 20, Lisa Garcia, Yakima, 3:32:57.

Herd leads West to Barden victory

YAKIMA, Wash. — In the first half of Saturday’s 15th Earl Barden Classic, the West team went with a quarterback rotation of Greg Herd and Chris Smith, and its offense never really clicked.

The second half became a one-man show for Herd, and he turned in a virtuoso performance.

Herd, the Eastern Washington University-bound athlete from Steilacoom High, threw a momentum-shifting touchdown pass and later ran for another score to rally the West to a 31-13 victory over the East on a sunny afternoon at Zaepfel Stadium.

“He’s quick; He’s fast and strong,” Selah defensive lineman Ethan Bersing, the East defensive player of the game with 5 1/2 sacks, said of the 6-foot-3, 198-pound Herd. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.”

Herd’s athletic ability was on full display in the second half, particularly his knack for eluding an aggressive East pass rush that helped keep the West bottled up for most of the first half.

It was that skill for escaping that ultimately turned the game around.

On a fourth-and-4 from the East 27, Herd dropped back to pass and was on the verge of being sacked for about a 10-yard loss, but, some how, he not only slipped away from a lineman, but stayed on his feet. Herd then spotted Derek Rice open in the end zone, firing a perfect strike for the score that helped give the West a 14-13 lead with 19 seconds left in the third quarter.

“I was standing there watching and I thought he was dead,” Rice said of the near-sack. “All of a sudden, I see the ball coming toward me and I thought, ‘Oh, God, I better catch it.’”

Rice did and the momentum clearly swung to the West, which fell behind 13-0 in the first quarter after miscues twice gave the East the ball deep in West territory.

The West’s defense, buoyed by Herd’s play, picked off Brady Blankevoort on the East’s first play on the ensuing possession, with Darren Collinwood returning it to the East 19. Four plays later, Jared Rodgers scored on a 1-yard run.

The East then fumbled the ball on the kickoff after that score, and on second down, Herd scrambled out of pressure and ran 16 yards untouched for the West’s final touchdown.

“I consider myself an athlete and was just trying to make plays,” said Herd, who also had second-half runs of 23, 22 and 17 yards. “My teammates did a great job of buying me time with pass protection and the receivers kept finding open spots downfield.”

Herd, the West co-offensive MVP with Rice, finished 7-for-18 for 134 yards, and also ran for 70 yards on 10 carries.

Kicker Cameron Homan from Eatonville capped the scoring with a Barden Classic-record 36-yard field.

After spotting the East those two early scores, the West defense was pretty much air tight, particularly in the second half, when it allowed just three first downs — one on the East’s first play of the half and another in the final minute with the game’s outcome decided.

“They came out fired up (in the second half),” Granger’s Mychal Lopez, the East offensive MVP, said of the West defense. “We just couldn’t stay on the field.

“But we’re happy with how things ended. We would’ve liked to have gotten a W, but the team worked hard all week. We’ve got nothing to hang our heads about.”

West    0    7    7    17    —    31
East    13    0    0    0    —    13
East — David Garza 1 run (Jose Bucio kick)
East — Jonathan Buchanan 4 pass from Brady Blankevoort (kick failed)
West — Chris Smith 1 run (Cameron Homan kick)
West — Derek Rice 27 pass from Greg Herd (Homan kick)
West — Jered Rodgers 1 run (Homan kick)
West — Herd 16 run (Homan kick)
West — FG Homan 36

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—West, Greg Herd 10-70, Devon Hughes 4-20, David Gaylord 6-13, Derek Rice 3-10, Jered Rodgers 5-5, Stetson Shearer 3-(minus 3), Cameron Homan 1-(minus 8), Luke Dixon 5-(minus 11), Chris Smith 3-(minus 19). East, David Garza 7-8, Oscar Ramirez 4-6, Derrick Talley 2-(minus 3), Brady Blankvoort 2-(minus 3), Derek Todd 5-(minus 32).
PASSING—West, Herd 7-18-134-1, Smith 2-4-15-1. East, Todd 8-16-78-0, Blankvoort 7-11-49-1, Mychal Lopez 0-1-0-1.
RECEIVING—West, Zach Gehring 4-91, Rice 4-63, Brandon Smith 1-(minus 5). East, Blair Collins 7-38, Lopez 3-47, Trevor Davis 2-19, Jonathan Buchanan 2-17, Miles Gardner 1-6.

Earl Barden Classic photo gallery

A look at some of the sights at the Earl Barden All-State Classic at Yakima’s Zaepfel Stadium on Saturday. Photos by Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic

Eugene snaps Bears’ streak

YAKIMA, Wash. — If Bob Didier has said it once he’s said it a thousand times: In professional baseball, what you did the previous day means nothing.

Or in the Bears’ case, the five previous days.

“Even the major-college guys on our team, they’d play three days in a row and then get a day off,” Didier said after the Bears’ five-game winning streak was abruptly halted, 9-1 by Eugene on Saturday night. “In this league, you play five at home and then you get on the bus the next morning, drive six hours and play again.”

So after a 4-1 homestand that nonetheless provided substantial encouragement — especially for Bears fans who haven’t seen a winner since the Conor Jackson-led club of 2003 — Yakima (5-3) will play its next three at Boise before returning to Yakima County Stadium on Wednesday night to meet Spokane.

Before an announced crowd of 1,755, some of whom brought brooms in hope of a sweep, a Bears team that had rallied to claim four of its five wins this time fell behind and stayed behind.

Eugene (2-6) scored twice in the first off Bears starter Andrew Wolcott, getting RBI groundouts from Vince Belnome and Nate Freiman after loading the bases via two singles and a walk.

Wolcott’s successor, Dan Taylor, was greeted rudely in the fifth by Ems designated hitter Edinson Rincon, who homered to left on Taylor’s first pitch.

Then with one out, successive singles and Bo Davis’ double produced another run, and Belnome’s two-out, two-bagger plated two more for a 6-1 Eugene cushion.

The Ems added another run in the sixth on a Rincon triple and Griffin Benedict single, and posted two final tallies in the ninth off Freiman’s RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to Rincon.

“What they did tonight was they taught us a lesson,” Didier said. “They hit the heck out of the fastball in fastball counts — 2-0 and 3-1 — so they taught us that we can’t get away with not throwing breaking pitches for strikes and constantly getting behind in the count.”

Yakima, meanwhile, had produced 10 or more hits in each of its victories, but labored against Eugene left-hander Jose De Paula and two relievers.

The Bears’ lone run scored on a balk, following Dan Kaczrowski’s single, stolen base and a groundout to first.

For the night Yakima totaled only six hits — three by Kaczrowski, who’s gone 6-for-9 over his last two games. Usually a middle infielder, Kaczrowski also made two diving catches in left field and stole two bases.

“You know what he’s trying to tell the manager?” Didier asked. “He’s telling the manager he wants to keep playing. You get three hits, steal two bases and make two diving catches, that’s how you tell the manager you want to play.

“And he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow night.”

Yakima’s streak was its longest since the aforementioned 2003 squad won seven straight en route to a 45-31 finish.

Rincon’s three hits led the Emeralds, who have led in seven of their eight games, while Freiman, Railey and Davis added two hits each and Belnome had three RBI.

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