12
Wednesday,June30,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
SPORTS
Life-long learning pays off for softball catcher
College-bound Maddie
Troutt taking her
game to a new level
Mark Gibson
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
T
HE DALLES GRADUATE
senior Maddie Troutt isn’t
sure when she first got inter-
ested in playing ball. “Probably like
when I was 4,” she says, at a guess.
Her stepdad, Leroy Tharp, was a
baseball coach working with teams
in Gresham, Hood River Valley and
The Dalles. “She was a field rat, so to
speak,” he explained. “She definitely
grew up on a baseball field.”
“It was an exciting thing to go to,”
Maddie remembers.
She entered the game on her own
account at age 8 with Cherry City
Crush, a traveling softball organiza-
tion based in The Dalles.
“I’ve played ever since,” she said.
Asked to take on the catcher roll
early on, Maddie declined. “I didn’t
like all the gear, and it was just over-
whelming,” she recalls. Yet some-
how her coach, Roger Hoylman,
managed to capture a video of her
promising to be a catcher someday.
And she did — a good one.
Playing her senior year this
spring for The Dalles Riverhawks,
Maddie was named Intermountain
Conference (IMC) first team
catcher and was a player of the year
candidate, and was Oregon’s Class
5A all-state catcher as well.
As a freshman and sophomore,
she was named IMC all league, sec-
ond team catcher and led Oregon’s
5A school teams in home runs as
a sophomore. Her junior season
in 2020 was cancelled due to the
pandemic.
Maddie has also been a winner
at every age group in travel softball:
The 10U Cherry City Crush team
was state ASA runner-up; the 12U
Cherry City Crush was the state
ASA champion; the 14U Cherry
City Crush was second in state ASA
and NAFA national champion (she
was a first team, all-tournament
selection); and at the 16U level, she
has traveled the county playing the
nation’s best competition for the
Oregon Blaze 18U Gold Team.
•••
Maddie has been running softball
games from behind the plate for
Graduated The Dalles High School senior Maddie Troutt stands for a photo at 16th Street Ballpark in The Dalles.
their mind off their bad pitches, and
onto good pitches.” The relationship
between the pitcher and the catcher
is probably the most important
relationship on the field. “You have
Maddie Troutt to trust each other,” she said.
With her knowledge of the
Intermountain Conference first team catcher
pitcher and the batters, Maddie also
directs the fielders during games.
“As a catcher, you can literally see
the box, the angles they hit at. You
years now.
the whole field,” she explained.
see if they are pulling or casting,
“I like being involved in every
For Maddie, running a game is
pitch. I would get really bored when and where they hit. You’re studying
nothing unusual. “Coaches have
batter tendencies,” she said.
I was younger. Outfielder? I could
always trusted me to handle the
And pitchers, as well. “You
not do that,” she said.
game, call the pitches. I’ve been
As a catcher, her coaches learned have to know the strengths and
taught really well, and coaches
weaknesses of the pitcher,” she
to trust her in calling the pitches
can’t see what I can see, being right
said. “Pitchers are ... sensitive,”
and running the game. Maddie is
there.”
she said. “During the game, if they
fascinated by the complexity of it
In the thick of it on defense as a
are struggling, I’ll go out there and
all.
encourage them, maybe tell a joke, catcher, Maddie is also the best of-
“You look at the batter, the way
get them to laugh and relax. Get
they swing, where they stand in
fensive player on The Dalles softball
“Coacheshavealwaystrustedmetohandlethegame,callthe
pitches.I’vebeentaughtreallywell,andcoachescan’tseewhatI
cansee,beingrightthere.”
Mark B. Gibson photo
team. She led all 5A school teams
in home runs as a sophomore, and
although softball was cancelled due
to the pandemic her junior year,
she made her mark in her senior
year, leading the team in home runs
and hitting the longest home run
known to have ever been made at
the 16th Street ballpark: It went over
the fence — over the trees — over
the power lines and onto the junior
varsity field below.
Having graduated from The
Dalles High School on Saturday,
Maddie was travelling again by
Thursday: this time to Stansfield
University, where she will, of
course, take up spring residence at
the ball field.
Missed free throws the difference as
Riverhawks fall to Ravens in IMC playoffs
Risley
■ Brandon
For Columbia Gorge News
rhythm scoring the ball.
By the end of the first quarter the
scoring had picked up a little bit
leading to a one-point Riverhawks
In game that looked much dif-
lead at the break. The Riverhawks
ferent than the final score, missed
struggled immensely to put the ball
opportunities were the story for
in the hoop in the second period,
The Dalles Riverhawks as they fell,
going nearly five minutes without
48-38, to the Ridgeview Ravens in
the first round of the Intermountain a field goal. The defensive intensity
was there but every time they creat-
Conference Playoffs.
The two teams split their season
ed a turnover and runout, they were
series with each winning on their
unable to capitalize on the offensive
home court. The latest matchup
end. The Ravens (5-9, 3-7) went on
had come four days prior when the 11-0 run that saw the Riverhawks
Riverhawks (3-9 overall, 3-7 league) miss five free throws in a row before
defeated the Ravens 49-40 in the
making one that ended the Ravens
final game of the regular season.
run. With the Ravens taking a 22-17
On one of the hottest days of the lead into the half, the difference was
year so far, the temperature inside
the Riverhawks’ inability to convert
Kurtz Gym matched that of the
their free throws, going 2 for 9 in the
nearly 100-degree weather outside quarter.
which led to some sloppy play early
In the third quarter the
on. The ruckus crowd helped the
Riverhawks changed their strat-
teams bring out their intensity,
egy offensively and started using
especially on the defensive end. But their size to their advantage. After
neither side was able to find any
having a quiet first half, Riverhawk
senior Spencer Taylor came to life
scoring six straight points during an
8-0 run that tied the game early in
the period. The Riverhawks didn’t
score the remainder of the quarter
and continued to struggle from the
foul line. Neither team was able to
create a substantial run in the final
period and both teams continued
to struggle from the free throw line.
With just under two minutes left the
Ravens had a six-point and were at
the line to potentially ice the game
but missed both attempts. The
Riverhawks couldn’t capitalize and
a subsequent turnover lead to an
easy Raven basketball to clinch the
win.
Raven sophomore Peyton
Zampko led the way for his team
with 12 points, while Taylor also
finished with a team-high 12 for the
Riverhawks. The Ravens ultimately
The Dalles senior Spencer Taylor makes a pass in Kurtz gym action earlier this sea-
fell to No. 1 seed and undefeated
Crook County (15-0, 10-0 League) son. Taylor scored six points in a 8-0 second half run by the Riverhawks, but was
unable to turn the tide in their Intermountain Conference first round playoff game
59-47 in the second round.
against the Ravens.
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