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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 2000)
10 Sports WEÓNEsdAy, M ay 24, 2000 TkiE CÍACkAMAS P r ÍNT Cougar softball squad takes third Mt. Hood knocks team out of title game as an expected Lower Columbia-Clackamas championshipnever takesplaceand Southwestemvegion schools sweep the top fourplacings Tournament Standings #1 - Lower Columbia #2 - Mt Hood #3 - Clackamas #4-Olympic JOHN THORBURN Editor-in-Chief It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be the Cou gars who faced the Red Devils of Lower Columbia College for the title. It was supposed to be both teams' #1 pitchers throwing against each other—Melanie Warthen versus Misty Velke. It didn't happen. The Mt. Hood Saints dashed any hopes of "the big game." The squad from Gresham waltzed through the Northwest Athletic Association of Commu nity Colleges [NWAACC] tour nament in Cinderella-like fashion before losing to top-ranked LCC 5-4 in 10 innings in Spokane on Sunday. In a game that pitted the #2 team against the #3 team of the Southwestern Region— Clackamas against Mt. Hood— the winner moved on to face LCC for the championship. Mt. Hood shut down Head Coach Paul Fiskum's squad with a 3-0 victory. "Mt. Hood is a great team," said Fiskum. "I was actually more surprised with how poorly they played in the regular season than their performance at the tourna- ment." Melissa Borde, a converted pitcher who was recruited as an outfielder, picked up the loss. The freshman righthander had won six straight games for the Cougars. "Mt. Hood's pitching has got ten progressively better through out the year," added Fiskum. "On top of that, they have two of the best hitters in the conference." While the fourth-ranked Cou gars ended the tournament with a loss, they started the two-day round robin championships with a loss as well. Edmonds Community College, the third place team from the Northeastern region, upset Clackamas with a 3-2 victory which was marred by bad breaks and questionable calls from um pires, according to Fiskum. "Both teams played an excel lent game," noted Fiskum. "It was one of those games if the ball had gone two or three inches the other way, the outcome might have been different. I've told [the team], that if you are going to win a championship, you have to have three things—you have to be good, you have to play well and you have to get the breaks. We had two of the three. "We also had to overcome some pretty lousy calls by the plate umpire," continued Fiskum. "There were some blown calls but any great team must over come that. It's just unfortunate to have to try to overcome bad calls in a championship tourna ment." Jessica Farnsworth, who en tered the tournament as the team's # 1 hitter, struck out look ing twice on pitches the homeplate umpire later said he misjudged. Farnsworth went on to only hit . 118 for the tournament. After a loss to the Tritons, Clackamas faced elimination for the rest of the weekend. The Cougars had to face for midable opponents. Later in the afternoon, Fiskum's squad took on Spokane and Walla Walla—teams that fin ished tied for the region title in the Northeast. Spokane won a tiebreaker between the two teams sending them into the tourney as the #1 seed. Ranked #2 and #3 in the Northwest, Spokane and Walla Walla couldn't overcome a deter mined Clackamas team as they fell 3-2 and 5-0, respectively. Back-to-back wins on Saturday propelled the Cougars to a 3-1 victory over Olympic on Sunday morning. The victory over the Rangers set up the Saints against the Cougars in a winner-to-cham- pion, loser-out matchup. While the Cougars were ranked behind two Northeastern teams, they joined three other Southwestern clubs as the top four finishers in the tourna ment—1. Lower Columbia, 2. Mt. Hood, 3. Clackamas and 4. Olym pic. Kirsten Richards will join five other second-year Cougars in tomorrow's All-Star game at Roy Morris Park in Longview, Wash, at 5 and 7 p.m. The entire infield was named to the team as well as Farnsworth, who is a centerfielder. Melissa Cedillo (third base), Vanessa Applegate (shortstop), Summer Conroy (second base), Richards (first base) and Warthen (pitcher) will join their outfielder to represent Clackamas at the games. "Having six players selected to an 18-player roster is phenom enal," said Fiskum. "I don't think any team has ever had that many selected before. These players are chosen by other coaches in the region. Having this many players named to the team, it re ally shows how much respect this program has around the region." Next week: Paul Fiskum says farewell to 10 sophomores and looks for newcomers to fill some big shoes. Team can't muster wins in final week, switches focus to rebuilding the loss, 9-0. The Cougar squad started out Sports Editor the season beating teams that are top-ranked in the league. As the Recruiting and looking to im season progressed, the team prove the team is the next step jumped into a losing slump that for the Clackamas baseball team. they never climbed out of. Al In the final games of the sea though the season was not the son, the team hoped to get at best that Clackamas has ever least one win, but the Cougars' seen, there were some players season ended with three defeats who were picked Second Team by top-ranked Lane. All League and one player who May 15, Ryan Oliver picked up was chosen First Team All the loss, 2-1. According to Head League. Coach Robin Robinson, Oliver Selected for Second Team All threw a great game. League: Ryan Oliver—desig "Ryan Oliver threw the game, nated hitter; Cliff Johnson— it was a great game against the catcher; Ryan Boyle—infield; league champions," noted and Will Schwisow—infield. The only Clackamas player Robinson. "He did a great job of voted First Team All League was keeping them off balance." Mike Armstrong scored the Ron Landolt—closing pitcher. only run of the game and Matt According to Coyle, Landolt was a walk on who led the team in Cooksey had the RBI. May 18, the team faced wins and saves and has earned Lane again in a double-header. the respect of his teammates and In the first game, Aaron players within the league. The season is over for the Shanks started and Jason Farrimond picked up the loss, Clackamas baseball players, but 12-8. Coyle noted that for coaches Robinson and Coyle, Armstrong and Cooksey con the work is hardly done. The team is actively trying to tributed to the team as big hit ters. In the second game of the recruit about 16 players for vari day, Glenn Boss (1-1) started ous positions next fall. It has al and Ron Landolt picked up ready recruited one player out of MANDY GOOD Madison High School, in Port land. "We feel like we have first base and second base pretty solid," said Robinson. "We are going to go and recruit at least two or three short stops, be cause they can play anywhere. We need catching because Cliff is gone; we have a couple of letters out to local catchers. We need to recruit qlmost an entire pitching staff—we have Aaron Shanks back and we don't know if Cooksey is going to be healthy enough to pitch so from there we are going to have to bring in at least ten. guys to fill these spots." . PHOTOS BY JOHN THORBURN / Clackamas Print A sign standing in front of the baseball field explains the story. The season is over for the Cougars who failed to qualify for the playoffs after starting the year 4-1.
