Staff photo by Matt EntrupA memorial banner for Ashlee Hodgen hangs in center field as Hodgen Distributing's Joe St. Pierre prepares to pitch against Meridian (ID) in the semifinals of the Ashlee Hodgen Memorial Tournament on Sunday at Bob White Field in Pendleton. Meridian won 9-0.

PENDLETON — As sports so often forces athletes to do, the Hodgen Distributing baseball team had to take the bad along with the good and finished their weekend tournament with more of the former on Sunday.

After starting its summer season with two straight shutout wins at the Ashlee Hodgen Memorial Tournament, the team bearing her name lost 9-0 in the semifinals to Meridian (Idaho), then 8-3 to Baker City in the third-place game.

The tournament was a fundraiser for the Ashlee Hodgen Memorial Scholarship, created in her honor after her sudden passing at age 24 last July.

It’s the best possible way to honor the young woman who became a member of the Pendleton baseball family at birth and grew up around Bob White Field, where she later assisted her father Mike Hodgen with grounds-keeping and coaching duties at the historic ballpark.

“She was here with her dad all day a lot of the times. She was a fixture from when she was a little girl just playing around with her sister,” said Hodgen Distributing coach T.J. Haguewood, who graduated from Pendleton High and played for her father. “When I was a senior in high school she was the little three-year-old, four-year-old running around. I’ve got a picture during graduation of me sitting on a curb and she’s right next to me, just her and me.

“She was a special girl, and that hit our baseball family pretty hard.”

With the letters AH chalked onto the pitcher’s mound, eight teams took the field over three days with La Grande eventually topping Meridian 13-11 in the championship.

Although her boys didn’t pull out the title, the players who consider themselves fortunate to have known “Brite Eyes” said there’s no questioning what Ashlee’s reaction would have been.

“The thing I remember the most about Ashlee is she was always positive, no matter what happened,” said Hodgen infielder Nick Lani. “She would always tell me, ‘Good job,’ and give me a high five. She was just a great girl to be around and to have around the team.”

Lani’s experience is far from unique.

“On game days she would always send you a little message on Facebook, ‘Play well today, I’m proud of you,’” said pitcher Austin Zaugg. “And at the end of games she would be like, ‘Great job today, way to do it. Love you guys.’ She was a team player.”

“She just made everybody happy, made everybody laugh,” said catcher Jared Beveridge.

Her positivity wasn’t limited to Pendleton players, though, as Wyatt Morris found out when he met her as a member of the opposing team when he as a freshman at Roseburg.

“I met her when we had a tournament here,” said Morris, who moved to Pendleton for his sophomore year. “She was always nice, always coming over to the team, it was awesome. You don’t find very many people like that.”

Ashlee’s sunny disposition will continue to be a fixture at Bob White Field for years to come as well, in the form of a banner — a smiling portrait — that has hung in center field since shortly after her passing.

“It’s hard to talk about in the past tense because it’s a life that went a little too early,” Haguewood said. “You just remember those special moments that I know a lot of people had and I had too.”

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Contact Matt Entrup at mentrup@eastoregonian.com or (541) 966-0838.