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8
BY JACOB THOMPSON
P
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Cougars slide into playoffs
SPORTS EDITOR
Clackam as Com munity College’ s softball team
qualified for the Northwest Athletic Conference
playoffs in Spokane this weekend after a 23-19 season.
Going into the first round as the No. 12 seed, the
Cougars will play the five seed Bellevue Community
College (32—13 overall) on Friday, but the Cougars
aren’t worried about the,Bulldogs regular season
record.
“ I think we have a great chance at the tournament,”
said Head Coach Jessica Buel. “ It’ s a whole new ball
game, it’ s a brand new season, so if we show up and
play like we can I think we have a great chance to
make a run at the tournament.”
Clackamas has advanced to the NWAC playoffs for
18 straight years and has appeared in the playoffs 29
of the 32 years.
Clackamas hung-around a winning percentage of
.500 all season and had been in the 16 spot in the
Rating Percentage Index, but a strong finish to the
regular season pushed Clackamas1 up the ranking
ladder.
“We started out kind of rough, but we really bonded
as a team,” freshman infielder Peyton Elliott said.
“We had a practice off where we hung out as a team
and talked about what we want to accomplish and
since then it’ s really gone up hill for us.”
Winning three out of four games against Chemeketa
Community College (7"33) and splitting double
headers versus No. 11 Centralia Community College
(23-18) and No. 7 Southwest Community College (31-
17), the Cougars climbed into the 12 spot.
Clackamas lost game .one of their final double
header versus SWOCC 9-0, but bounced back to take
game two 8-4.
“We’ve really picked it up as a team,’’ freshman
pitcher Baylee Eaton said. “ Ifeel like we’re going to
do well in the [playoffs] because we’re just a whole
different team from the beginning.
The. Cougars had a standout batter in freshman
catcher Natalie Munson who finished with 18 home
runs and tied for the HR lead in the NWAC North
Idaho College’ s freshman infielder Ashlyn Winn and
sophomore infielder Kalyna Korok, Treasure Valley
Community College’ s sophomore catcher Jordan
Henley and Centralia Community College’ s freshman
first basemen Dakota Brooks.
Clackamas’ game versus Bellevue is set to start at
12:30 p.m. on Friday,
‘ pTtotcr by- Jojohan- y ijlaggmez
■i
Freshman infielder Katie Nelson (left) high-fives freshman catcher Natalie Munson (right) in celebration.
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Nay 16, 2018