Sports
TI h E CI ac I<AMAS P rìnt
________ 9_
WEdNEsdAy,
M arg I h
8, 2000
A field of dreams
Improved ballclubs could bring home titles
Softball
Baseball
MANDY GOOD
Sports Editor
The men’s Cougar baseball
team will start out there season
this Saturday playing Lower Co
lumbia CC at Longveiw Wa..
Then will play Grays Harbor on
Sunday at home. The team is
hoping for a season that will end
in a National title.
“We’ve got better foot speed
this year; I think that we have
great hitting and We’ve had good
hitting in the past, we were fourth
of fifth in the Nation back in 1995
and I think that, that is the kind
of team that we could have,” said
Head Coach Robbie Robinson.
According to Robinson the
tough teams in the league that
they will go head-to-head with
this season will be Mt Hood,
Chemekata, Lane and Linn
Benton.
“We think that it is going to be
a good year for the region. We
have well balanced
teams,” Robinson noted.
The team is made up of
a mix of freshman and
sophomores. In the fall
the team was made up of
78 men. In winter training
which went through Ndv.-
Dec. they picked 30 guys
out of the bunch of 78.
Then by Feb. 1 the team is
again cut down to about
25 players, then cut again
and there are currently 23
men that will represent
the Clackamas baseball.
“We’ve taken a good
group of kids and we’ve got
ten down to what we think
are the best 23 kids,” ex
plained Robinson. “We do
have a couple of freshman
pitchers that we think are
going to do tremendous,
and that is Aaron Shanks
who is a left handed pitcher
out of Madison, Colin Elliot a right
handed pitcher/shortstop out of Se
attle, and a kid that we just picked
up out of the blue, that I think is
going to be just tremendous, who is
George Schler out of Forest Grove.”
The Cougars have a team
equipped with experienced pitch
ers, stronger depth in the middle
field, a strong out-field and more
team speed then the prior year. Ac
cording to Coach Robinsin, the
team is going out with the tools
that will make for a successful sea
son of ball playing.
“It looks real good. We're
strong pitching-wise. We’ve got
great depth in the middle field,
which was are weakness last
year. Shortstop and second, we
have strength there this year so
we are compensating for last
year. Our out field is playing re
ally strong and we are going to
hit better than we hit last year,”
explained Robinson. “Top to bot
tom, 1 -6, our team should be very
good.”
JOHN THORBURN
Sport: Baseball
Head Coach: Robin Robinson
Top returners: Greg Palmer,
Glenn Boss, Robert McCoy
Keys to victory: With some of
the best pitchers in the
Northwest, the Cougars are
loaded.
History: 1996 was the last time
the Cougars held at least a
share of the league title. The
program must break out of late-
season stumbles that it's seen
in the past.
Editor-in-Chief
11 members of a squad that fin
ished fourth in the Northwest and
captured a share of the league
championship last year, return for
another run at a conference title.
With only 14 players on the ros
ter this season, Head Coach Paul '
Fiskum feels that it is his ‘most ex
perienced’ club to ever wear a
Clackamas softball uniform.
Sport: Softball
Clackamas having won seven of
Head Coach: Paul Fisk urn
the 12 conference titles since the ad
Top returners: Melanie
dition of softball to the Northwest
Warthen, Darby Needham,
Summer Conroy; 11 returners
Athletic Association of Community
from league champion squad
Colleges [NWAACC], Fiskum
chooses his words carefully when
Keys to victory: Pitching is
comparing this year’s squad to the
best asset this season.
champions of the past.
History: CCC has been the
“Talent-wise we stack up with
team to beat over the past
some
of the best teams we’ve ever
decade—winning 7 NWAACC
had, “noted the 12-year veteran soft-
championships.
ball coach. “Our whole starting in
field is back and two starters in the
outfield are back. Plus an all-league
pitcher; we’ve never had that kind
of experience return. But experience
The baseball squad
isn’t what wins: talent wins. This is
practices infield plays in
a bunt situation. The
a very talented group.”
Cougars are an
While the Cougars boast expe
improved bunch in
rience and talent, depth is not an
every area, according to
element that Fiskum can brag
Head Coach Robin
about this season. Carrying only
Robinson.
14 players when it usually lists 18
on the roster, the sophomore-domi
nated team doesn’t have much
room for injury.
“With our depth factor, we just
have to hope that we stay injury-
free,” noted Fiskum. “We’ve got 14
excellent players but if we get an in
jury then we’ 11 definitely feel it. If we
get an injury in our pitching staff
then we’re going to be hurting.”
This season, the Cougars are
mw ■
carrying the usual three pitchers
on their roster. An injury which
sidelined Freshman Jolene Adams
in recent weeks, however, leaves
the squad with only two legitimate
JOHN THORBURN I Clackamas Print
threats for the start of the
season.
Vanessa Applegate
“Right now, it’s pretty
takes hitting practice
much
on Mel [Warthen] and
from Jolene Adams
Darby’s [Needham] shoul
during practice on
ders,” noted Fiskum.
Monday afternoon.
Applegate is one of 11
Winning most of the
returners from a team
NWAACC titles that have
that finished #4 in
been contested in softball,
Washington and
the Cougars hope to take
Oregon.
part in this year’s champi
onship tournament in Spo
kane—a place that has been
welcoming to Clackamas
softball. Fiskum has won
two championships in the
Eastern Washington city
with the most recent com
ing in 1996. He feels that
2000 in Spokane will be a
good spot for his squad.
“Some schools don’t
have the right to say that
their legitimate achievable
goal is to win an NWAACC
JOHN THORBURN I Clackamas Print title every year. We’ve, for a
number of years, have had
The baseball team's first home game is this Sunday against Grays Harbor College at1 p.m.
the right to say that and this team’s
The softball team's first home game is March 31 against Chemeketa at 2 p.m.
no exception.”