PENDLETON — Baker edged La Grande 2-1 Tuesday to win the Greater Oregon League baseball playoff and capture the league's No. 1 Class 4A state playoff berth.

The Baker boys golf team finished 14th in the Class 4A state tournament, which ended Tuesday at Banks.

Emily Smith, the only Baker girls player to qualify, placed 39th in the girls tournament at Redmond.

Smith, a sophomore, shot a second-round 98 on Tuesday, four shots better than in Monday’s opening round.

Junior Ty Parry was Baker’s top finisher in the boys tourney, with a two-day total of 194. He finished 78th.

Today's scheduled baseball game between Baker and La Grande to determine Greater Oregon League seeding in the Class 4A state playoffs was postponed because the planned venue, Bob White Field in Pendleton, was, according to Baker athletic director Mike Sullivan, "under water."

The same soggy situation prevailed at other Pendleton fields today, Sullivan said.

The teams will try again to play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Bob White Field, he said.

If that field remains unplayable, then the Bulldogs and Tigers will search until they find a diamond that is dry enough, Sullivan said. That's because, per Oregon School Activities Association rules, the seeding game must be completed Wednesday.

Both Baker and La Grande, which are GOL co-champions, are scheduled to play second-round playoff games on May 25.

Sullivan said he, along with his counterpart from La Grande, will travel with their teams to Pendleton on Wednesday to handle logistics in case Bob White Field isn't ready.

The winner of the Baker-La Grande game will play host to Scappoose. The loser will travel to North Marion.

Baker picked the perfect time to break out of its late-season duldrums Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (18-5 overall) needed to be at their best when they hosted Ontario in the Greater Oregon League regular-season baseball finale for both teams. On the line for the Bulldogs was a return to the Class 4A state playoffs.

Baker was faced with one of three scenarios, and chose the best by sweeping the Tigers 7-4 and 6-3 at the Baker Sports Complex.

The sweep, coupled with La Grande’s 8-2 and 11-0 sweep of Mac-Hi, left Baker and La Grande tied as GOL co-champions. Those two teams will meet Tuesday in Pendleton for a 4 p.m. seeding game at Bob White Field. The winner of that game gets the GOL No. 1 state berth and hosts Scappoose May 25. The loser of Tuesday’s game gains the No. 2 GOL berth and travels to North Marion May 25.

The sweep leaves the Bulldogs securely in second place in the GOL standings, and means Baker (16-6) will host Sisters May 25 in the second round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

Sisters is the Sky-Em second-place team. The Outlaws lost 10-2 to Marist Saturday in that league’s playoffs.

Baker won Game 1 Saturday with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Tori Brown opened the inning with a single. Then, after two outs, Morgan Johnson hit the first pitch she saw to left field. Brown raced home and slid in under the tag for the win.

The first week of May was going to be different. I just didn’t realize how different.

Two members of the Baker City Herald newsroom were going to be on vacation that week. That meant I was supposed to come in Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings to help get the paper out — something that I’m not usually a major player in doing.

I usually do that task two or three times a year, depending on vacation times. This time there was the added twist of having at least one local sports team playing every day that week, and on all but one day those events were home events.

But I soon would find out that wasn’t going to matter.

Monday began bright and early around 5 a.m. The crew that morning turned out to be myself and Chris Collins. Another reporter was out sick.

HERMISTON — Baker athletes earned five firsts Thursday at the annual Hermiston Twilight track and field meet at Kennison Field.

Baker boys earned four of the firsts — Mitko Smith in the 200 (23.82), Roberto Kitch in the 400 (52.93), and Jake Eastland in the javelin (158 feet, 4 inches) and the pole vault (13 feet).

Melissa Clarke won the girls 3,000 with a time of 12:12.01.

A quintet of Baker tennis players qualified for the Class 4A/3A/2A/1A state tournament during the Special District 5 tournament at Vale.

Courtney Petry joins Dan Sizer, Jordan Curtis, Trenton Howard and Nathan Eiselein at state.

Petry, a senior, is the lone Baker girl to advance.

Petry won her first three district matches in straight sets before coming up against her nemesis, Sarah Bond of Ontario, in the championship match.

Bond defeated Petry in two sets to win the district title.

Baker Middle School athletes set four new school records at the Baker Invitational track and field meet May 6 at Baker High School.

Nate Baeth set two of the records — in the eighth-grade boys 800 and triple jump. In the 800 Baeth was clocked in 2:22.79, breaking the old recod of 2:22.84 set by Travis Detwiler in 1997. In the triple jump, Baeth leapt 35 feet, 5 inches, to better his own mark set earlier this season.

Michelle Freese set two new girls seventh-grade marks. Freese threw the shot 34 feet, 6.5 inches to break the old record of 34 feet, 1.5 inches by Sarah Swanson in 2007. Freese also bettered the girls long jump record by seven inches. The old record was set in 1975 by Gere (Richardson) Bloom.

Baker braced for Saturday’s crucial doubleheader against GOL rival Ontario by downing Grant Union 9-4 in a non-league game Wednesday at John Day.

The game against the Class 3A Prospectors was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed because Grant Union’s field was soggy.

Wednesday’s win, which was highlighted by Trace Richardson’s three-run homer in the seventh inning, gives the Bulldogs a measure of momentum they lacked after a disappointing split with La Grande in a doubleheader last week.

“We swung the bats pretty well,” Baker Coach Dan Blankenship said. “It was nice to see us hitting the ball hard.”

That doubleheader split left Baker and La Grande tied for second in the GOL with 6-4 records, one game behind Ontario.