The Eugene Emeralds dropped the second of a three game series against the Hillsboro Hops in a 10-2 loss on Sunday night at PK Park.

It was also Purple Rain night at the ballpark. The Emeralds wore customized purple jerseys, and Prince songs filled the time between innings.

Starting pitcher Pedro Silverio had 7 strikeouts, but also gave up four hits and four walks, which had a role in the Emeralds immediately falling behind the Hops 2-1 in the first inning.

The Hops scored two more runs in the fifth, with a single by Manny Jefferson and a 2-run home run by Josh Anderson. At this point, a win was still not too far from reach for the Emeralds with a score of 4-2.

It all went downhill in the top of the ninth when the Emeralds were attempting to rally. The Hops went through their entire lineup and scored six runs with only two hits. The rest of the Hops’ success was due to walks, wild throws, and errors by the Emeralds.

Emeralds reliever Scott Frazier began the inning, but was pulled after surrendering two straight walks to start the inning.

M.T. Minacci was brought in to replace Frazier, and immediately threw a pitch that forced a ground ball, but a wild throw to first by Yeiler Peguero turned what should have been a double play into two bases for Luis Veras.

After that, the Hops loaded the bases twice from a combination of one walk, two wild pitches, two hits and a fielder’s choice to hold the ball after a short hit.

The Hops finished with eight RBI by five different players, and seven hits by five different players.

The Emeralds had three-up, three-down in the bottom of the ninth, with little to no momentum left.

“We definitely need to minimize the walks in the first inning and just capitalize,” Emeralds pitcher Bryan Hudson said. “We have to get runners on base, and we have to get those guys in.”

The Emeralds will be seeking to redeem themselves Monday night against the Hops at 7:05pm at PK Park.

Follow Alexa Chedid on Twitter @alexachedid18

Alexi Pappas and Jeremy Teicher’s  film Tracktown premiered at the McDonald Theater in Eugene on Tuesday evening before a sold-out crowd.

The film, a fictional story based off of Pappas’s experiences and observations as a professional runner, was appropriately screened while the 2016 Olympic track and field trials are taking place in Eugene.

Director, writer, and producer Jeremy Teicher explained that it was a goal for the cast and crew to complete the film in time to have a screening during the trials. Tracktown originally premiered at the L.A. film festival in June.

Pappas portrayed Plumb Marigold, the lead role, opposite Chase Offerle.

Plumb is a runner who is preparing for the most important race of her life — the Olympic trials. The majority of the film follows Plumb during a day off from running, as she explores life off of the track, and navigates through the complexity of maintaining a romantic relationship alongside her demanding athletic schedule.

Offerle portrays Sawyer, an ordinary young man who works in a bakery, and eventually woos Plumb. Sawyer respects Plumb’s career, but often encourages her to take time off to be with him.

The film often included voiceovers of Pappas reading proverbs by various historical figures. This was certainly an inclusion of her own personality and rituals, as Pappas is known for posting and tweeting inspirational quotes and poems.

Tracktown was entirely shot in Eugene, and utilized many local businesses to use as sets. In most scenes, there were many “Eugene-like” quirks, such as the presence of Birkenstocks and tie-dyed socks.

“Everything was just real,” Teicher said about his settings.

Though many shots may have looked to be set up in a particular fashion to emphasize a bohemian vibe, he explained that it was an unbiased, honest look at Eugene.

“[We thought] what are the things that we love about Eugene?” Teicher said about the locations that were included in the film.

About the formulation of the character Plumb, Teicher described Pappas’s conception of her. According to Pappas, she is a “patchwork quilt of different stories and personalities” that stem from her own observations while on the track.

Tracktown also features accomplished actors, Rachel Dratch and Andy Buckley.

The film is expected to screen in multiple film festivals in the next few months. Screenings will be announced as they are confirmed.

To keep up to date with Tracktown, check out the film’s website here.

Follow Alexa Chedid on Twitter @alexachedid18

The Eugene Emeralds’ offense was hot as they took the first game of a three game series against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in a 7-4 victory on Saturday evening at PK park.

The momentum was on the Emeralds’ side in the fourth inning, beginning with back-to-back singles by Kevonte Mitchell and Yeiler Peguero. When the next batter up, Robert Garcia, hit a fly ball to right field, Mitchell was able to tag up and score.

The very next batter in the fourth, D.J. Wilson, hit a home run to deep right field, knocking in three more runs. This pushed the Emeralds ahead from a 2-1 lead to a 5-1 lead.

“We’ve been swinging well,” Wilson said after the game. “We’ve been seeing a lot of pitches, having some great at bats and putting the ball in play when it counts. And we get a few big hits here and there.”

Wilson also touched on the importance of insurance runs, something that was necessary for the Emeralds to hold onto their win on Saturday. He said that it is crucial to get their pitcher in a comfortable position, which ultimately boosts the momentum for the rest of the team.

Wilson went 1-for-3 with two RBI.

In the fifth inning, aggressive base running accounted for another Emeralds’ run. After Matt Rose hit a single, he proceeded to steal second base as the following batter, Chris Pieters, struck out. Rose was moved to third by Wladimir Galindo’s groundout and eventually scored on a wild pitch by Volcanoes pitcher Nolan Riggs.

The Volcanoes began to fight back in the seventh when Gustavo Cabrera hit a three-run home run off of Emeralds reliever Daniel Lewis to trim the lead to 6-4.

The Emeralds responded in the bottom of the seventh when Wladimir Galindo shot one to center field, accounting for one run. He was caught in a pickle while remaining aggressive and attempting to make his hit a triple.

Galindo went 1-for-4 while Rose went 2-for-4 against the Volcanoes.

The Emeralds’ starting pitcher, Jose Paulino, pitched six innings while only allowing one run and striking out eight. He was named the winning pitcher. Meanwhile, the Volcanoes starter, Mac Marshall, lasted three innings, and the bullpen went through four relievers.

The Emeralds will take on the Volcanoes again at home tomorrow evening at 7:35 p.m.

Follow Alexa Chedid on Twitter @alexachedid18

The Eugene Emeralds took the fourth game in their five game series with a 4-1 win against the Spokane Indians Sunday evening at PK Park. They now lead the Indians 3-1 in the series.

Behind starting pitcher Manuel Rondon, the Emeralds’ defense kept the Indians to only one run despite them accumulating seven hits throughout the game.

Offensively, the Emeralds put in work in the first, third and seventh inning, earning four total runs — enough to get the win. Eugene finished with six hits and one error.

Though there was only one run to show for it, the seventh inning of offense was particularly electric for Eugene. With two outs and Wladimir Galindo on first, a stolen base began a wave of momentum for the Emeralds. A walk followed, and Ricardo Marcano’s then hit a double to bring Galindo home for an insurance run.

Minacci had a clean inning in the top of the seventh, when the Indians were attempting to rally, with two strikeouts and a groundout. He was relieved in the eighth inning by Mark Malave, who allowed no runs.

In the top of the ninth, the Indians achieved one more hit and got a man on first, but also hit three groundouts to conclude the game.

The Emeralds are now 7 -3, and lead the Northwest League South, with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes close behind at 6-4. Meanwhile, the Indians are at the bottom of the Northwest League North with four wins and six losses. While it is still incredibly early in the season, the emeralds are off to one of their best starts in recent memory. The regular season ends on September fifth.

Six different players had hits for Eugene, and Kevonte Mitchell went 1-for-4 with a two-run home run in the third inning. The Emeralds’ pitching staff now has a league-best ERA of 2.08.

The last game of the series is tomorrow night at 7:05pm at PK Park.

Follow Alexa Chedid on Twitter @alexachedid18

The UO Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) hosted a chapter meeting that featured guest speaker Mark Helfrich, head coach of the University of Oregon’s football team, on Wednesday, April 6th. The event was free and open to the public.

Helfrich spoke about public relations, and how important handling the media properly is for himself and his high-profile team.

“This,” Helfrich said while raising up his mobile phone, “is a very powerful device.”

Understanding that most college students are devoutly attached to their social media pages, he said that he simply advises his players to be smart about what they post.

“If you aren’t willing to say it in a press conference, don’t say it [on social media],” he said about posting content after a win or a loss.

Helfrich revealed some of the “P”s that he tells his student athletes to obey when they are being interviewed: “Have a plan,” he said. “Be positive, be personable, be prompt, and think proactively.” According to Helfrich, there are many more guidelines.

The Ducks’ head coach was specifically asked about how he assisted former Oregon quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota in handling the immense amount of media coverage that he received during his time at Oregon.

Helfrich elaborated on Mariota, saying that he is such a pleaser that he would have responded to every interview request. The Oregon team had to limit the media’s access to Mariota, who at one point was juggling twenty course credits, an internship and extra biology labs along with the hype and pressure of the College Football National Championship game.

“He did a fabulous job [handling the media], like he does with everything,” said Helfrich.

Helfrich went on to share that his student athletes who go on to have professional careers in the NFL often return to UO to visit and give advice to younger players.

Being a native Oregonian, Helfrich touched on how influential Oregon sports teams were to him while he was growing up. Now, he said that he wants his team to be made up of individuals who are respectable, and inspire the next generation.

“There is some kid who will have one interaction with [a UO football player] and that will be his impression of Oregon football forever,” he explained.

The PRSSA meeting lasted an hour, and the majority of the event consisted of a question and answer segment with those in attendance. Helfrich was extremely gracious with his time, and remained in Allen Hall after the meeting to meet with whoever chose to approach him.

For more information about the UO PRSSA, visit here.

Did you enjoy watching Pitch Perfect? Then you might want to follow Divisi, University of Oregon’s thriving, all-female a cappella group. The group that just won the Northwest Semifinals of the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella and is headed to the finals in New York City on April 30.

Divisi is the first UO a cappella group to accomplish this since 2010. It is also the first time that an all-female a cappella group will attend the finals since 2011.

“Divisi has a history of strong women breaking boundaries in a cappella,” said senior and assistant music director Austin Skelton. “We, as the current Divisi, feel honored to be upholding that tradition by competing in the ICCA finals.”

“Only the top 10 a cappella groups in the entire world attend finals, and we are one of them,” singer and soloist Samantha Westmoreland said. “We have to pinch ourselves sometimes to remind us that this is real life.”

The final competition will be held in the Beacon Theatre, which is the same facility used for the Tony Awards, as well as many Broadway productions.

Divisi selects its songs through a democratic process at “listening parties” where all members bring songs that they think would work well for the group. Skelton explained that Divisi usually learns a new song every one or two weeks, but the group is currently focusing on its competition set for the finals.

UO students can check out Divisi, along with a cappella groups On the Rocks and Mind the Gap, on Fridays at 3:45 p.m. in the EMU. Divisi can also be hired for events, and is releasing an album that is expected to be released next fall.

If you are interested in auditioning to be a part of Divisi, spring auditions will be held on Saturday, June 4, at the School of Music.

You can follow UO Divisi’s calendar to stay up to date with the group.

“We have been preparing for this since August and we can’t wait to leave our hearts on the stage,” said Westmoreland. “We are so overwhelmed with and grateful for the love and support that we have been receiving from our families, friends and the UO community throughout this competition process.”

For more on the final competition, visit here.

Looking to add a little bit of culture to your weekend?

Check out Eugene Oregin – a university Russian Theater production, for a free evening of laughs and enthralling drama. There will be two showtimes: Saturday, March 5 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 6 for a matinee show at 2:30pm in room 123 of Global Scholars Hall.

Students from the University of Oregon’s Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies have designed a satirical, modern, bilingual adaptation of Russian writer Alexander Pushkin’s original novel “Eugene Onegin.” The students have prepared for the play in their term-long course, “Russian Through Theater” –RUSS 309/609, while the course’s professor, Julia Nemirovskaya, will be directing the production.

To register for “Russian Through Theater,” Russian language skills are not required, though they would be beneficial. Students can expect to acquire knowledge of the language, study Russian literature and culture, and conclude the course by participating in a Russian play.

The inspiration for the production came after Nemirovskaya was asked by the Eugene Opera to lecture on Pushkin’s novel. She knew that the novel could be successfully translated to a Eugene audience through the means of a well-adapted play.

Come out this weekend to support fellow UO students, and the study and celebration of Russian literature.

To find out more about the UO’s Russian Theater program, visit its website here.

The UNICEF Campus Initiative is back at the University of Oregon and is reaching out to spread awareness about global issues that UNICEF comes into contact with on a daily basis. The greater Eugene community is welcome to attend a film screening of On The Way To School, hosted by UO UNICEF and UO Students for Global Health on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. in room 177 of Lawrence Hall.

On the Way to School documents the treacherous multi-mile paths that four groups of students around the world must travel daily in order to reach school and pursue an education.

UO UNICEF Vice President Sara Fatimah explained how relatable this film should be to the university’s student body. “It is vital not to turn a blind eye to realities outside of our UO campus, especially, as we are students ourselves,” she said. “Equitable access to education is something that affects us all.”

An organized discussion about the issues presented in the film will follow the screening. Critical thought towards the issue of access to education and proposals on how student groups can participate in aid are welcome during the discussion.

“Overall, our goal with this event is to engage UO students and Eugene community members in thinking about and discussing children’s accessibility to education, both in the economic and physical senses,” said Namratha Somayajula, a member of the UO UNICEF Campus Initiative.

UO students who acquire a passion for global issues or philanthropic work are encouraged to join the UNICEF Campus Initiative. To get more information, attend the film screening on Tuesday, or sit in on a meeting, held on Mondays at 6 p.m. in Mackenzie 214.

At each weekly meeting, members work to educate themselves about children’s rights on a global scale, and brainstorm how to involve the Eugene community in its efforts towards benefitting UNICEF as a whole.

The UO UNICEF Campus Initiative has recently been revived, and it’s members are excited for it to grow. No matter how small or large its drop in the bucket may be, the club’s work is in hopes of inspiring a strong and passionate group of young leaders.

Somayajula explained, “We hope to make an impact locally while contributing however we can to UNICEF at large.”

UO UNICEF will have more film screenings in the future, as well as other awareness campaigns and fundraisers.

Watch the trailer for On The Way To School below:

Before his days playing the whimsically romantic Jack Dawson in Titanic or the infamously ruthless Calvin Candie in Django Unchained, a babyfaced Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for his first Academy Award at just 19-years-old for his role as Arnie, a mentally impaired youth in the independent drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. 

DiCaprio has been nominated for six Academy Awards in total, thanks to his most recent gig in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s thriller, The Revenant. Sadly, for Leo and his fans, he has failed to take the coveted statuette home.

What makes this year different? DiCaprio won his first ever Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The Revenant. This role also earned him various regional Film Critics Association Awards, something that has not happened consistently for any of his other successful works, along with the Golden Globe award for Best Actor.

Will this finally be Leo’s year? Here’s a look at DiCaprio’s Best Actor competitors:

Bryan Cranston: Trumbo
Cranston has dominated television awards lately, taking home six Emmy Awards for his performance in the television series Breaking Bad, with a total of twelve Emmy nominations to his name, along with other honors. This year, Trumbo was nominated for the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Matt Damon: The Martian
The only major awards that The Martian have taken home thus far are Golden Globes for Best Leading Actor and Best Motion Picture — both under the Musical or Comedy category. Damon’s prime came in 1997 and 1998 for his film Good Will Hunting, for which he won the Academy Award – but it was an award for writing, which he shares with Ben Affleck.

Michael Fassbender: Steve Jobs
Fassbender recently experienced great success with his film 12 Years a Slave, which cultivated numerous award nominations. Unfortunately for him, the film did not earn him any major wins. Like DiCaprio and Damon, Fassbender has yet to take home an Academy Award.

Eddie Redmayne: The Danish Girl
Redmayne’s breakout role came in 2014 with his performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Redmayne took home an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award, all for Best Leading Actor. The Danish Girl was nominated for the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award this year.

At both this year’s Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, DiCaprio competed in the same category as Redmayne, Fassbender, and Cranston, and he ultimately took home the hardware.

Looking back on DiCaprio’s career, it seems as if he’s truly done it all. He has portrayed a greedy con artist and a passionate loverboy, a money-hungry stockbroker and an obsessive-compulsive inventor, a criminally insane mental patient and an extravagant 1920s businessman.

Still, according to DiCaprio himself, portraying Hugh Glass in The Revenant was the most challenging role he has faced.

The Revenant required cast members to shoot in extremely harsh, below-freezing weather conditions. DiCaprio burrowed inside of a horse carcass and devoured raw bison liver while creating his miraculously resilient, revenge-seeking character.

Watch the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 28 on ABC, live at 4 p.m. to see if 2016 belongs to Leo. If it’s not his year, stay tuned for his role in Martin Scorsese’s The Devil in the White City, in which he’ll play serial killer H. H. Holmes, known for his brutal murder castle. Holmes’ castle was equipped with soundproof torture chambers, bedrooms, and bank vaults, where he left his victims to suffocate, or die of hunger and thirst. That’s entertainment!

The halftime show for Super Bowl 50 included a high energy mash-up of three varying artists: Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. The show included an attempt at a tribute to past halftime performers.

As much as Coldplay tried to be the star of what was supposed to be its big show, the attention was swiftly stolen from them as soon as Queen Bey stepped onto the stage.

Here’s how it went down:

Coldplay opened the show with its oldie-but-goodie hit, “Viva La Vida” equipped with extremely colorful instruments and props. Chris Martin did his best to pump up the crowd and interacted with the first few rows of fans. The immense amount of orchestra members, costumed dancers and fired-up fans eclipsed the energy for which the band strived.

After Coldplay picked things up with its newest hit “Adventure of a Lifetime,” producer and DJ Mark Ronson took the crowd into “Uptown Funk” with Bruno Mars. This is when real, choreographed dancing began; Mars rocked his hit and delivered an entertaining performance, before Beyoncé arrived to steal the show.

The Queen herself stepped onto the field, along with a squad more than twice as big as Mars’s. She immediately delivered with her confident attitude, killer vocals and coiffure hairstyle.

Soon after Beyoncé’s arrival, she and Bruno Mars (and their backup dancers) engaged in a no less than epic dance-off. By now, the audience must find it hard to remember that Coldplay was even present, but Chris Martin joined the pair to finish off their medley.

To close the show, Martin slowed things down and began his tribute to past Super Bowl halftime show performers, including Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and countless others. The stage transformed into a screen to show footage from these performances.

Beyoncé and Bruno Mars then joined Martin on stage to sing a slow mash-up of some of their hits. The rest of the band and orchestra members slowly joined in as well, and the production number ended with a stage packed with people.

The show ended as the entire crowd in the stadium held up colorful signs that read “Believe in Love.”

Overall, the show had it all – high-energy numbers, low-energy numbers, Beyoncé prowling the astroturf in heels, Bruno Mars and his backing dancers in all-leather get-ups. However, it seemed as though all the high-energy numbers and cool dance moves belonged to the “guests” – Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. Coldplay ultimately delivered its conventional – if predictable – set, but definitely was not the star of the show.