Thursday
April 22,1999
<E)regon^£meraUj
Best Bet
NHL Hockey Playoflis
Conference Quarterfinals, Game One
4:30 pm, ESPN
UO catcher
tough to stop
Freshman Missy Coe
leads the Oregon softball
team on offensive
By Tim Pyle
Oregon Daily Emerald
Perhaps freshman Missy Coe
has had no problems adjusting
to the nation’s toughest confer
ence because she has faced
tougher situations.
Playing consecutive double
headers against No. 1 UCLA and
No. 4 Washington, as the Ore
gon softball team did last week
end, does not seem quite so dif
ficult to someone who has been
the only girl on an all-boys
team.
“I played baseball and I was
the only girl in the league for
two years,” Coe said of her
third- and fourth-grade intro
duction to softball, or at least the
male version of it.
Perhaps Coe, the Ducks’ start
ing catcher and leading hitter
heading into today’s 3 p.m. dou
bleheader at Portland State, has
always been ahead of the game
because of that experience.
After a prestigious prep career
at North Medford High School
that included first-team all-state
honors three times and All
American honors twice, Coe is
simply continuing to excel.
“At first, I was surprised at
how well she was going early in
the season,” Oregon head coach
Rick Gamez said. “But as the
season’s progressed, she’s just
continued to play well in all ar
eas.”
She may now be calling
pitches and hitting line drives
in the Pacific-10 Conference —
all eight of whose teams are
among the nation’s top 17 — but
it is still the same game Coe’s fa- •
ther enthusiastically pressed
upon her as a child.
“He knew I had the competi
tiveness in me,” said the 5-foot
7 Coe, “so he just got me into the
sport because he loved it.”
Gamez loves the way Coe has
sparked the Duck offense from
the second spot in his batting or
der, tallying team highs in bat
ting average at .381, doubles
with 14, total bases with 100
and runs scored at 39.
“We knew she was gonna be
a good ballplayer,” Gamez said.
“We didn’t expect her to hit
where she’s hitting right now,
but it’s a pleasant surprise, obvi
ously.”
Despite being a “gap-to-gap”
hitter as Gamez defines her, Coe
has also displayed power from
her left-handed batting stance,
blasting nine home runs. Ac
cording to Coe, that is the most
shocking trait she has devel
oped so far at Oregon.
“I never could hit home
runs,” said Coe, who throws
right-handed. “In high school,
there’s not even fences, and I
couldn’t hit it over their heads.
If I hit a home run, I was like,
‘Woo.’
“But now my stroke is com
Turn to COE, Page 9A
Nick Medley/Emerald
it She wants
to succeed
regardless of
who she’s
playing
against.
Rick Gamez
Oregon softball
head coach
Freshman Missy Coe,
the Ducks’ leading hit
ter, with a .381 batting
average, looks for sig
nals from head coach
Rick Gamez during last
Saturday’s matchup with
UCLA.
Offensive line digs for new identity in the trenches
Nick Mediey/Ememld
Assistant head coach Neal Zoumboukos coaches the offensive line during practice Tuesday afternoon.
Inexperience and a lack of
communication have plagued
the offensive line in scrimmages
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Many positive things can be said about
the defense of the Oregon football team.
The return of defensive coordinator Nick
Aliotti and a modified scheme worked
well in the Ducks’ first two spring scrim
mages.
However, the offense told a different story
in the intrasquad contests.
Gone from the offensive line are
Michael Klews, Stefan deVries and Mar
co Aguirre. Gone is a core group that en
abled Oregon’s total offense to climb to
10th in the NCAA with more than 478
yards per game.
The Ducks must now construct an offen
sive line from one returning starter, another
player who has started and others who have
limited experience.
And the result?
In Oregon’s first scrimmage earlier this
month, the offense finished without a sin
gle touchdown. The only points came from
three field goals, as the offense struggled to
195 total yards while committing three
turnovers.
The offense performed better in the sec
ond scrimmage, but it still did not meet
head coach Mike Bellotti’s standards. The
defense repeatedly shut the offense down,
including three third-down quarterback
sacks and a one-yard loss on a third-down
completed pass.
The offense’s first touchdown of spring
practice did not come until the eighth drive
of the second scrimmage.
However, assistant coach Neal Zoum
boukos is not worried about his offensive
line. He attributed some of the offense’s
faults in the scrimmages to the cunning de
fense, but he said the line is still in the
process of learning.
“We have a young of
fensive group, and we’re
giving the offense a
tremendous amount of
plays to absorb at this
time,” Zoumboukos said.
“When you have a dis
jointed group, you don’t
always have starters with starters. You’re
mixing people up so that continuity and
communication isn’t typically what it
would be in the fall.
“If this type of thing were occurring in the
fall, I think there would be some concern,
but this happens every spring.”
With the graduation of key players,
Zoumboukos has made some adjustments
to the line. Josh Beckett moved from right to
left tackle, and Deke Moen moved from cen
ter to right guard.
Beckett said the moves have been hard to
deal with and are a key source of the Ducks’
Turn to FOOTBALL, Page 9A