>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

In preparation for the OSAA tournament, La Grande hosted Heppner at Optimist Field Tuesday.

Good preparation, it was.

The Tigers baseball team defeated Heppner, 5-1, behind a bases-loaded triple from Evan Humphrey.

Richie Carmichael earned the win on the mound, striking out one batter through three innings.

Also, Kole Stein and Josh Homan (two strikeouts) each pitched an inning, and Zach Nice (one strikeout) threw two innings.

But coach Mark Lanman was not pleased with the Tigers’ at bats. 

“We did a horrible job hitting,” Lanman said. 

“We played great defense and our pitchers did well. Our hitting just took a day off at the plate.

“We’ll bounce back and be fine.”

La Grande will host Scappoose at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the OSAA playoff opener.

Heppner               000 000 1    —    1 5 1

La Grande            103 010 x    —    5 4 0

 W — Carmichael. L — Kenny. 2B— LG, Humphrey, Z. Nice.