Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2013)
6 Ä PRINT: Sports Wednesday, May 8,2013 — “ «H 7 I Big league fans don’t need big league team IIBM81 Softball team sweeps doubleheader, prepares for NWAACC Championships I IPORTf Sports Editor / Portland is the largest metro area in the United States without a major league baseball team. And although Portland doesn’t have a MLB team or an NFL team, does it really need one? Many sports pundits say that the lack o f those two jew els o f professional sports make Portland a second rate sports city. I say that is hogwash. The fact that Portlanders pack Jeld-Wen field for the Timbers games and support for die Winterhawks and Blazers has not waned in decades proves that Portland is a first rate sports city. You don’t need to have major league teams to be interesting. The one sport that does get major league billing in Oregon is track and field, as Hayward Field in Eugene hosts some o f the top meets in the United States each year. The NCAA Championships and Prefontaine Classic are scheduled there this June. Another great thing about sports fans in Oregon is that nowhere else will you see the passion exhibited for trade and field like it is at Hayward. Good baseball in Oregon? Right now the Ducks and Beavers are battling for the Pac- 12 championship as both teams are ranked in the top 10 nation ally. The Beavers and Ducks also sell out ever growing football ; stadiums on Saturdays through- out the fall, so you can’t tell Above: Rachel Ray, a freshman from Medford, makes contact on her way to four hits in the second game on Saturday. Ray led o ff the game by running over the first baseman on her way around the bases to score the gam e’s first run. In the 9-8 victory, she scored three runs. Below: Alyson Boytz, afreshman from Elmira, Ore., was the winning pitcher in both games during the doubleheader sweep over Lower Columbia on Saturday, pushing her record to 11-3 on the season. m e that local fans do i?t support all sports passionately. General Associate Editor crowd cheered. “I wanna’ see that again,” said one fan. In the second inningj the day, pushing her record to 11-3 on the season. Buel was excited to get the The ladies of Clackamas Community College softball eagerly secured an early victory in the first game of a double- header against Lower Columbia Red Devils on Saturday at home. Showing their will for victory, Clackamas scored a run in the first inning and two in the second, laying the foundation for the 3-1 win. The Cougars are playing good ball right now, but head coach Jessica Buel is always looking for improvement. “It’s just about getting bet ter every game and every at bat to prepare for NWAACCs,” Said Buel. Buel has also been impressed with the multitude of players that have been stepping up lately for the Cougars. “I don’t know if I could sin gle one person out, actually it’s probably been someone differ ent every day and everyone’s been contributing so that’s been huge,” said Buel. The team confidence was evi dent from the moment the team cheered a rally cry of “CCC!” to begin the game. The momentum and power of the Clackamas team was comparable to the crashing gusts of wind blowing through the home field. The sun was beating down, increasing the intensity of the atmosphere. Loud booming music between plays, constant team cheers and chants set a soundtrack for the event. The Cougars defended the first inning and no runs were scored by Red Devils. Clackamas’ first batter of the day was freshman Rachel Ray. With a running start, she hit the ball to left field low and with amazing momentum, bar reled through Lower Columbia infielder Jessica McDonald at first base, then kept going to score Clackamas’ first run. The Gould hit the ball on the ground to center. It was thrown to first by a Red Devil but first base missed the ball so Gould was safe. She then stole second dur ing a bunt attempt, before scor ing the Cougars second run on freshman Kiara Vasquez’ hit.- Vasquez made it to third base and then home during another Ray hit. At the end of the sec-, ond inning Clackamas led 3-0. The next three innings were very defensive and some solid plays were made by both teams. In the sixth inning, Red Devils freshman Haley Hibbs hit the ball straight at Cougar pitch-, er Alyson Boytz, who almost caught the ball, but it hit so hard it knocked her glove off. Hibbs made it safely to first. Clackamas sophomore Lucy Baldovino replaced Boytz as pitcher. Still no runs were scored by Lower Columbia in the sixth inning. Like two weather systems crashing together, the seventh inning was a powerful struggle. Red Devils freshman Bethany Burch hit the ball all the way to the fence and eventually scored Lower Columbia’s first run dur ing Ashley Wells’ hit. The last batter of game one was Red Devils sophomore Mackenzie Martin who hit it high to Cen terfield where Clackamas’ out fielder made a nice home for it in her glove. Game one was over as the Cougars defeated the Red Devils 3-1. The Cougars rallied in the second game, scoring four runs in the fifth and one in the seventh to pull out a 9-8 victory. Leadoff batter Ray had four hits and three runs scored to lead the Cougars. Rashaun Sells added three hits, including a home run, while driving in three runs. Kayla Stevens added three hits and Gould homered in the win. Boytz pitched the final three innings to get her second win of Columbia. “I’m very proud of our team,” said Buel. “We had to fight back and we came back in that sec ond game and we played our game and did what we needed to do to win the game and that’s what matters.” Clackamas (12-4 in S. Region, 25-13 overall) is guar anteed to finish in the top three of the region standings for a 15th consecutive season and is currently in second place, trail David Beasley i The Thoms women’s profes sional soccer team drew m ot».; than 16,000 fans to their first home game. The Timbers rou tinely sell out Jeld-Wen field’s 20,000-plus seats for their MLS games. The Winterhawks played the first two games o f the WITL hockey finals in front o f sell-out crowds o f 10,947 at the Rose Garden. The Trail Blazers averaged 19,829 fans which was good for fourth in the NBA according to i ESPN.com. From 1977 to 1995 .. the Blazers sold out 814 consecu- ’ five games, a record for major American professional sports leagues that stood for 16 years. The Class A Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team surpassed the Blazers record in , 2011. One thing that local fans have not supported the same way in recent seasons is baseball. Maybe ; it’s the fact that Portlander’s want . to do something when the weath er finally gets nice, rather than sit and watch, what many consider to be a slow, boring game. The Portland B ekers were last in the Pacific Coast League in attendance during their final season in Portland in 2010 with 4,265 fans per game. They aver aged between 4,500 and 5,500 since their return in 2000, so there is enough support for baseball to certainly fill up a new stadium in Hillsboro. The Beavers Triple-A base ball team last played in 2010, as PGE Park was renovated' into a football-soccer only facility fo r’ the Timbers in 2011. The Yakima’ | Bears, a single A team in the Northwest League is supposed to relocate to Hillsboro, as the Hops, with a 3,534 seat stadium wife room for up to 1,300 to sit or stand on the berm in left field. Supporting a major league baseball team would take 25,000- 30,000 fans per night and that seems like quite a stretch tur Portland fans. So, does Portland really need a big league baseball team a t NFL franchise to really make it as . a sports city? I think we are doing just fine with everything we have. doubleheader sw eep over Lower ing Mt. Hood by one-half game. Mt. Hood has won 11 straight games overall and seven in a row in-4eague to ge t bac k -i n t o the race. The Cougars hosted the Saints in a very important doubleheader on Tuesday at 3 p.m., but results were not avail able at press time. The Cougars stay home for their last games of the regular season, hosting a doubleheader against Clark CC on Saturday beginning at noon. 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