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By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
May 28, 2008
It’s been two nonstop weeks of sports action, and
your friendly local sports reporter is wiped out from traveling
to Tualatin and back, Tigard and back and Eugene and back via
Lake Oswego. That must mean it’s time for another edition of The
Notebook.
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In Tigard and Lake Oswego, the HRV boys lacrosse team was busy
getting into the state semifinals with a pair of thrilling wins.
In Dallas, Texas former HRV player Ian Bohince was helping
Western Oregon into the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Division II
Championship Tournament. In their first round game the Wolves
beat Harding 21-5 before losing to eventual champion Westminster
20-9 in the second round.
For his
efforts, Bohince was named to the Division II All-American
second team as a face-off specialist.
Bohince managed
to play through both games despite having a badly pulled
hamstring.
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Down in Eugene the HRV track and field team sent five members to
the Hayword Field at the University of Oregon. In between
feeding the parking meter and trying to find my way through
several major remodels of the field (the already stellar
facility has undergone several major facelifts to prepare it for
next month’s Olympic track and field trials) I actually got to
watch a few races on Thursday.
It turned out
to be a good year for the HRV track team with Lauren Lloyd and
Leo Castillo both leading the way with second and fourth place
finishes in the 800 meters and 3,000 meters respectively. Both
set team records in their state finishes, and Lloyd still has
two years to go in an Eagle uniform.
While Castillo
and Lloyd were flying to the finish line, a former HRV state
champ was finishing her season in style. Jacquie Mattson, who
won the state 6A high jump title last year, finished fifth at
the Greater Northwest Athletic Conference in the high jump with
a leap of 5-00.25.
The jump helped
the Seattle Pacific Falcon women to a second place finish as a
team.
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In Tualatin, the HRV baseball team saw its season end when it
could not find a way to upset the Tualatin Timberwolves.
Meanwhile, former HRV pitcher Heath Goin was doing his best to
extend the season for the New Mexico State Aggies.
Goin made his
final appearance of the year in the first game of a double
header with Louisiana Tech in which he allowed three runs, two
of them earned, and was left with a no decision when a reliever
blew a lead in the ninth inning to send NMSU to a 5-4 loss.
The Aggies
eventually lost to Sacramento state in the first round of the
WAC conference tournament.
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From the high school and college sports world to the pros.
Former HRV pitcher Andrew Baldwin is finding that the struggles
of the Seattle Mariners pitching staff do not stop with the
major league team. Baldwin has struggled through five starts
this season with the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers.
In 10 games,
five of them starts, Baldwin has a 1-3 record and 7.45 ERA. In
his most recent start against Colorado Springs, Baldwin lasted
only 3.1 innings and gave up eight runs on 11 hits.
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Speaking of the Mariners, Seattle’s professional baseball team
is finding out big-time what it feels like to gamble and lose
this season.
The Mariners
felt that with the addition of a stud pitcher in Erik Bedard
they would go from an 80 game winner to division winners.
Yet they failed
to improve the team’s offense, which struggled last year, or its
defense, which is atrocious to put it mildly.
The result
being that when the three starting pitchers not named Felix
Hernandez or Erik Bedard take the mound the team manages the
unholy trinity of being unable to hit, field or pitch.
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In the almost-your-trivia question-but-not-quite section, the
staff of Hood River Valley High School was scheduled to play
their annual game against the street team from Jammin 95.5
“Portland’s Party Station” two weeks ago, but the game wound up
being cancelled?
Why? Well if
the game had gone through, it would have been the last event for
the Jammin 95.5 team.
Two days after
the scheduled game the station switched over from Hip-Hop to an
all sports format know as 95.5
The Game, which
will be the home of the Blazers, Seahawks and University of
Oregon. So you still are not able to watch the Blazers on TV,
but at least you can hear them a little bit better on the radio
dial now.
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In the Civil War spirit of Memorial Day, Union General Abner
Doubleday is widely credited with inventing the sport of
baseball. Doubleday may have been a war hero, but he was not the
inventor of “America’s pastime.” Who actually formally set down
the rules for the sport?
A: Alexander
Cartwright, the founder of the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball
Club, wrote down the 20 original rules for baseball in 1846.
There is
reason No. 182,046 to be glad I am your local sports reporter. |
