Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2002)
b________ WEÓNEsdAy, ApRÍL 17, 2002 TI he CI ac I camas P rínt Just can’t beat ’em DAISY BAIN A & E Editor Thursday, Apri 18 @ CHEMEKETA Wallace Marine Park, Salem 3:30pm Satuday/Sunday Apri20/21 © CROSSOVER TOURNAMENT Wallace Marine Park, Salem TBA Tuesday, ApriL23 S. PUGET SOUND 2pm SALENA DE LA CRUZ/ Clackamas Print Nikki Staley, previous player of the week, prepares to field a ground ball from her third base position. Staley is batting .380 with 11 runs scored and five doubles this season. According to Flskum, In the game against LCC, her and the rest of the team played great defense and produced an error free game, although It was their third loss at home. The softball team took on Lower Columbia Community College again last Friday, los ing for the third time on home ground. Ksandra Sims of Lower Co lumbia pitched a great game. “She’s a great pitcher,” said Coach Paul Fiskum. “We have to give her credit.” According to the latest Northwest Ath letic Association of Community Colleges softball statistics, Sims has thrown six wins, no losses and allowed an average of only 0.55 runs per nine in nings pitched. “She throws hard,” said Fiskum about Sims. The Cou gars struck out 13 times. “That’s hard to take.” “We didn’t hit the ball at all,” said Fiskum, accounting for the 2-0 loss. “We would .swing hard and miss, but I am not dis couraged at all. The bats are going to come around,” he said. Fiskum refuses to only con centrate on the loss. “We had a great pitching performance by Miranda Gillaspie,” said Fiskum. She allowed five hits, two of which were bunts in seven innings. “We also played great defen sively,” said Fiskum. “With no outs, there was a runner on first and third base, they hit a fly ball to right field. (Lindsay) VanBramer caught it and threw the ball home for the out. It was a very, very nice play.” “We haven’t had very many errors at all” in 11 league games, said Fiskum. “Defense is the key to our game.” Fiskum hopes to give LCC a loss the next time they come to Clackamas. The Cougars are 0- 3 with Lower Columbia and 8-3 for the season. The women played a double header against Southwestern Oregon Community College on Tuesday; results were unavail able at press time. They will compete with them again in Coos Bay on Saturday, April 20. Softball player of the week Miranda Gillaspie Saturday, ApnL20 © SW OREGON lpm Gillaspie plays first base and pitcher for the Cougars. She has thrown a total of four wins and three losses so far this season. All four wins were shutouts. "She threw an outstanding ball game against the team who is in the number one standing in the NWAACC conference," said Fiskum. According to the 2002 NWAACC softball statistics she has only allowed an average of 1.34 earned runs per nine innings pitched, putting her in the ninth position in the conference. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT Tuesday, April 23 MT. HOOD lpm Waking up from the nightmare of the NBA Saturday, Aprl27 LANE lpm Tuesday, APril 30 @ MT. HOOD lpm INTERNET PHOTO From the Bleachers Nick Barron StaffWriler Tonight the last chapter will be gin on the National Basketball Association’s regular season. The Trail Blazers play host to the Hous ton Rockets at the Rose Garden this evening, meaning that the nightmare is nearly concluded. With the final buzzer of tonight’s game, the NBA playoffs loom just around the comer, slated to begin this weekend. Once those playoffs begin, I am forced to endure only two more months of lackadaisical basketball. Just ten more weeks of being inundated with sleep-induc ing highlights on SportsCenter, and I anf safe from the over-hyped world of the NBA until October. When the NBA regular season begins, the leaves are changing color and the pigskin is flying throughout National Football League cities across the nation, giving me another option to the pathetic product that NBA com missioner David Stern trots out onto the court. But once the Super Bowl concludes, I have to choose between the National Hockey League and the NBA for my major sports entertainment. Usually, I spoon-feed myself a little bit of both sports, but next year I think I’ll fol low curling. I understand why Oregonians love the NBA. For one, the games get them out of the rain and give them something to do in the middle of the winter. And I don’t hpld it against people in the Northwest who pledge allegiance to the Trail Blazers. Of course, my favorite sport, baseball, comes under criticism for being slow and boring. Perhaps the games aren’t as active as those in the NBA, but there is more to base ball than meets the eye. In order to truly love baseball and enjoy watching an entire game, one has to use the brain to understand what components go into every pitch and every swing. ...in the NBA, we don't have to deal with make- believe hatred between participants, it is real and right therefor our little kids to enjoy. But it seems that our country is sliding further into an ignorant abyss, and the NBA has benefited from our stupidity. Of course it is entertainment when millionaire seven-foot grown men swing punches at each other, or when they toss a basketball into the stands out of frustration. We watch in anxious anticipation and feel se cure in the fact that those players who bring street violence onto the court for the world to see will be fined, and, coupled with the fact that they score in the double dig its for the home team, we deem it OK. That is what the World Wres tling Federation is for, and that is why their violence is fake and scripted. But in the NBA, we don’t have to deal with make-believe ha tred between participants, it is real and right there for our little kids to enjoy. I can’t wait for the day my child tells me that he wants to get angry and curse like Allen Iverson, all the while slinging fists like the Tasmanian Devil. So now I see the light at the end of the tunnel. All I have to do is deal with the NBA for a little longer. Don’t worry about me, though, I will make it; I do every year. I’m just wondering how I will get to sleep at night once I don’t have NBA highlights on ESPN. To reach Nick Barron e-mail barronoru@hotmail.com
