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PRINT: Sports
Wednesday, May 8,2013
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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. The Cougars
are eyeing the NWAACC
Championships from May
17-20 at Delta Park in Portland
for a season ending flourish.
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