Cowboys beat cold, Tillamook

The Crook County Cowboys had their opening round game of the White Buffalo Classic Spring Break Tournament postponed a day due to weather.

Playing Thursday morning at 8 a.m. in near freezing weather, the Cowboys were in control from the opening inning of a 5-0 victory over the Tillamook Cheesemakers.

Playing as the visiting team, the Cowboys took advantage of a pair of Tillamook errors to score three runs in the top of the first inning, in temps hovering around 40 degrees.

Crook County added a run in the third and another in the fourth, while Cowboy starting pitcher Zach Allen pitched a complete game shutout for Crook County. Allen sprinkled five hits over his seven innings of work, walking just one batter and striking out three. The defense behind Allen was sterling as Crook County played error-free ball.

Meanwhile, Tillamook pitchers combined to limit the Cowboys to just four hits, while striking out seven. However, four walks, a hit batter and the two errors helped Crook County score their five runs.

The top of the Crook County lineup did most of the damage for the Cowboys as Tyis Yustat went 1-3 with a pair of runs, while Gage Martinez and Austin Vaughan also went 1-3 with a run and an RBI. Crook County's fourth and fifth hitters, Hayden Forman and Tyson Martinez, did not get hits in the game, but both had sacrifice flies that scored runs for Crook County. The final Cowboy hit came from Clayton Dill.

Crook County's aggressive base running also factored into the scoring as Yustat stole three bases, Gage and Tyson Martinez each stole two bases and Vaughan, Dill and Forman all stole a base.

With the win Crook County improved to 3-1 on the year while the Cheesemakers fell to 2-3.

The Cowboys play Roosevelt, 2-2, in the tournament semifinals at 8 a.m. Friday, then will play either the championship round or the third-place game later in the day.

Crook County 5, Tillamook 0

at Madras

Crook County – 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 – 5 4 0

Tillamook – 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 1 3