Sports Roundup

Published 2:50 pm Monday, April 8, 2019

Grant Union softball

Game one we lost 1-2, we played well defensively and Macy pitched a strong 7 innings, striking out 4, and only giving up 1 walk. Jordyn was 1 for 3, Madi Mckrola was 1 for 3, and Tiler Voigt was 1 for 3.

The conditions were rough, it was cold, rainy and a 20 mph blowing straight in. From my perspective, we were facing a good rise ball pitcher that kept us swinging at pitches up in the zone, that generally means you are going to lift the ball in the air. We hit some balls well that may have been HR’s on a normal day, but on Saturday they ended up being fly balls. Bottom line is the conditions were the same for both teams and we didn’t make the needed adjustments to come out on top in that one.

Game two we won 15-14. Taylor pitched one inning and Macy came in to pitch the final 6 innings. We were down 11-0 in the bottom of the 3rd and then started really battling at the plate and swinging at pitches we could handle. The weather was tough for both sides defensively. The game ended in the top of the 7th, with Union up to bat, they hit a single to right field, with a runner on 2nd and 2 outs. Kori Jo Girvin came up firing from right field and threw the girl out to Hailie Wright at the plate and ended the game. Jordyn Young was 3 for 5 with a HR, Hailie was 2 for 4, Madi Mckrola was 2 for 3, and Taylor Allen was 1 for 4 with a HR.

Looking forward to Thursday, we have a game with Irrigon (3A) that we don’t know much about, so we will go play softball and see what happens. Saturday should be another tough league doubleheader against a top 5 2A team. Weston-Mcewan is also well coached and has some girls that can pitch, so we will be prepared for a tough day.

Grant Union baseball

Both games were a battle. They have a couple good young starters. They were able to keep our bats in-check early on. Though, our kids had great at bats against them. We made them throw a lot of pitches early, which finally caught up to them. Their pitchers started to tire and as a result they started walking guys and missing their spots, so our players started to hit them well.

We were up 3-2 going into the last inning of the first game when our team rallied to put up 4 runs. They made a run at us in the bottom half, but Warner Robertson was able to finish them off for his second complete game of the year.

The second game, Mason Morris started for us. The first inning started off poorly for us as a team. Mason was having a hard time commanding the strike zone and we had a key error. They ended up getting their only run in the first, which was unearned. After that he settled down and was completely dominating them. He only gave up one hit and that was a bloop single down the right field line. He did throw a lot of pitches early on, so he was tiring in the 5th inning. Logan McCluskey came in relief and totally shut them down striking out all the batters he faced in 1 1/3 innings pitched.

It was a close game, 2-1, until the 6th inning when we scored 9 runs to end the game early because of the 10 run rule.

It was a great start to our league season. They had to battle some things out of our control, but like I always tell them, stay focused and battle every pitch of the game. We want them to believe that something good is always going to happen.

Tuesday’s game at Pilot Rock has been moved to Wednesday and will be played here. Their field will not be playable. We are trying to move our Saturday game against Weston to Friday. The weather forecast seems to be better that day.

Grant Union golf team competes in Pendleton

The GUHS Golf team traveled to Pendleton Country Club for a 6 team tournament. On the girls side

Heppner came out on top with a score of 426, the 5 other schools had only had 2 or 3 players for this

match. Individual scores wereTori Suto, Wallowa 74, Nicole Propheter, Heppner 85, Amber Treat, Echo

88, Sasha Keown, Heppner 94, Tiana Allen, Vale 100 and Katelyn Wells, GU 112. Maddy Way, GU had

a 139.

On the boys side Heppner had a 362, followed by Burns 400, GU and Enterprise 420, Vale 463, Echo

495. Individual medalist was Kellen Grant, Heppner 80, Kolton Kurata, Vale 88, Logan Burright, Heppner

91, Hunter Greenup, Heppner 93, Garrett Lenz, GU 95. The other GU scores were Devon Stokes 99,

Parker Manitsas 106, Maverick Miller 120 and Logan Namitz 159.

” The course was in poor shape due to not all the grass mowed. It is hard to fight back after being

penalized for not finding your ball in the fairway. Neverless we played better than I thought for this time of

year. They are looking forward to Burns and Heppner this week.”