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.