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Volcanoes open
milestone season
Submitted
Oregon Panthers Brielle Lowery, Hannah Jensen, Celina Ball, Ava Prechel, Lacey Vasas, Kayla Toavs, Hailey Schwinof, Margo Mc-
Manus, KJ Custer, Brookelynn Jackson and Sophia Fuller are 40-7 since forming in August.
Crushing the competition
Local softball team earns
automatic bid to nationals
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
With a 40-7 overall record
and outscoring their oppo-
nents 518 to 124, the Oregon
Panthers have already proved
they’re the best 10-and-under
Amateur Softball Association
team in the state.
So instead of competing
against girls their own age in
Beaverton, the Panthers will
jump up to the 12-and-under
state tournament in Clacka-
mas. Both are July 1-3.
They’ll also get an auto-
matic bid to ASA Nationals in
Stockton, Calif., where they’ll
compete against 30 of the best
10-and-under teams from all
over the country July 31-Aug.
7.
Before nationals, the Pan-
thers will again test themselves
against 12U teams in the Na-
tional American Fastpitch As-
sociation Western Regional
in Newberg in the middle of
July.
Playing in 12U tourna-
ments won’t be new to the
Panthers, who have already
won two of three 12U tour-
naments they’ve played in and
tallied a 13-4 record against
older teams.
But head coach Jamie Vasas,
who won a state champion-
ship as a baseball player at Mc-
Nary, said the 12U state tour-
nament will be the Panthers
toughest test to date.
“We should do well,” he
said. “It would be neat win-
ning both. We’ll at least com-
pete in that. Skill level they
[Panthers] are there [even] but
the girls grow so much in that
10 to 12.”
The Panthers, which are
made up of girls from Keizer,
Salem, McMinnville, Corvallis
and Oregon City, formed in
August and have played year-
round.
The program was started
30 years ago by Keizer resi-
dent Jerry Orlando and the
girls practice on the fi eld in
his front yard.
Korrine Jackson, who won
a softball state champion-
ship at McNary, is also on the
coaching staff. Both Vasas and
Jackson’s daughters, Lacey and
Brookelynn, play for the Pan-
thers.
“It’s nothing that we’ve
coached,” Vasas said. “The girls
are just really good. We’ve got
really good pitching, fi elding.
Everyone on the team can hit.
It’s just an overall good team.”
The team includes Lacey,
Brookelynn, Sophia Fuller,
Hailey Schwinof, Kayla Toavs,
KJ Custer, Celina Ball, Brielle
Lowery, Hannah Jensen and
Ava Prechel.
Jeff Ball and Troy Custer
help coach.
Thanks to an indoor facil-
ity in Salem, the Panthers can
practice and play year-round.
“They put a lot of time and
effort into being able to do
what they can do,” Vasas said.
“It’s pretty impressive. They’ve
done it themselves. They are
very talented. They put the ef-
fort it. There’s not a team that
comes around too often that
can do what they’ve done.”
The Panthers’ dominance
continued last weekend as
they won the Play for the
Cure tournament at Wallace
Marine Park in Salem.
The Panthers won the
championship game 12-2.
“None of the games are
close when we play 10,” Vasas
said. “That’s why we’re playing
12.”
Second baseman Margo
McManus hit a home run
during the tournament.
“I was there all day and
you don’t even see that from
14-year-olds,” Vasas said.
By HERB SWETT and
TIM HAYS
For the Keizertimes
The Salem-Keizer Volca-
noes started the season with a
6-5 loss to the Hillsboro Hops
last Friday.
With 20 years under his
belt, Owner Jerry Walker
wanted to do something spe-
cial for the milestone. After
speeches from city members,
former mayor of Keizer, Den-
nis Koho, arrived by helicop-
ter, just as he did in 1997, and
threw out the ceremonial fi rst
pitch.
Opening Day starting
pitchers featured Anfernee
Benitez for the Hops and Vic-
tor Concepcion for the Volca-
noes.
The Volcanoes wouldn’t
wait around long to get on the
scoreboard. Shortstop Manuel
Geraldo led off the bottom of
the fi rst with a double.
Two ground outs and a wild
pitch later, Geraldo scored the
fi rst run of the game.
The Hops would quickly
respond in the second inning.
After back-to-back singles
to lead off the inning, Con-
cepcion got a ground ball
that looked like it would get
him out of the inning. How-
ever, the double play was not
turned, which brought up sec-
ond baseman Josh Smith. He
would deliver with a three-
run home run to right fi eld
and give the Hops and early
3-1 lead.
The scoring would come
to a screeching halt, as both
pitchers settled in.
Benitez, who went fi ve
innings and struck out six,
retired 11 of the fi nal 15 bat-
ters that he faced. His coun-
terpart, Concepcion, would
go on to put down 12 of his
fi nal 15 batters, allowing fi ve
earned runs over six innings
of work.
The Volcanoes would
slowly chip away at the defi -
cit. After a solo home run by
Gustavo Cabrera in the sev-
enth inning, Kevin Rivera and
Geraldo each followed with
singles, ultimately scoring on
two wild pitches by Hillsboro
relief pitcher Trevor Simms.
The Hops added an im-
portant insurance run in the
eighth inning and headed to
the ninth leading 6-4.
A Juan Rodriguez triple
to lead off the ninth would
be followed by an RBI single
by Gustavo Cabrera to cut the
lead to one.
There was nothing left for
the Volcanoes as reliever Julio
Perez shut them down the rest
of the inning.
After dropping the season
opener, Salem-Keizer went on
a winning streak.
Here are the run-downs
from the past week:
Saturday: Volcanoes 14,
Hillsboro 3
The Volcanoes retaliated in
a big way after the Hops’ win
in the Volcanoes’ home opener
for Salem-Keizer’s most lop-
sided win since Aug. 9, 2014,
over Boise.
Please see Volcanoes, Page 13
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Manuel Geraldo beats the tag to score the Volcanoes’ fi rst run
of the season on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fi rst inning
Friday against Hillsboro.
Keizer swim teams ready for fun summer
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Holiday Swim Club, one of
three teams in Keizer, is proof
that summer swim league is
for everyone.
In the same pool as Kylie
McCarty, an incoming sopho-
more at McNary, who gets up
at 6 a.m. each day to swim for
three hours for Mid-Valley
Aquatics in Salem, and then
comes to Holiday to teach
lessons before practice, is a
4-year-old just learning how
to put his face in the water
and kick.
“I like to swim, I like the
people and you get a tan,” said
McCarty, who’s been swim-
ming for Holiday in the sum-
mer for at least eight years.
“There’s a lot of younger
kids and that’s more fun. The
school season, that’s a lot of
fun but you don’t know ev-
eryone as well and I feel like I
know a lot of people here re-
ally well.”
Annie Willcoxen coached
Holiday for the past six sum-
mers but has moved to team
coordinator and passed the
torch to former West Salem
swimmer Cody Luth.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Northwood Park Swim Club began practice Monday, June 20 and will compete in its fi rst meet Thursday, June 30 at 4 p.m. at
Holiday, which will host the all-city meet on July 30.
“I think the goal for all
summer leagues is more to
have fun and keep the neigh-
borhood pools going and
maybe a little less competitive
and get swimmers who aren’t
necessarily high school swim-
mers or club swimmers, get-
ting them in the water,” Will-
coxen said. “It’s all about fun.”
Luth, who assisted Willcox-
en last summer, isn’t the only
new head coach in Keizer.
Former McNary swimmer
Alan McCloud is in his fi rst
year leading the Northwood
Park team. He’s also been a
volunteer coach at McNary
the past four years.
“The goal of the swim
team is to teach kids how to
swim better and make them
feel safer in the water,” Mc-
Cloud said. “Coming away
with an all-city win is a plus
but the main goal of the swim
team is to provide kids with
the opportunity to swim and
learn how to swim well so if
they do want to pursue it in
high school or college, they
can do that. It’s a basic start.”
The swim league has six
teams, three in Keizer—Holi-
day, Northwood Park and
Northview Terrace, and three
in Salem—Jan Ree, Madrona
and Cambridge.
Practice began Monday
and each team will have fi ve
duels, June 30, July 7, Ju;y 14,
July 21 and July 27 before
wrapping up the season on
Saturday, July 30 with the all-
city swim meet at Holiday.
Around 350 young swim-
mers competed in the all-city
meet last summer.
Northwood has won the
meet the last two years.
The fi rst week of duels has
Northwood going to Holiday,
Northview hosting Cam-
bridge and Madrona at Jan
Ree.
All weekday meets begin at
4 p.m.
“It's a fun environment for
kids and a chance to be part
of a team," said Jeremy Darst,
who is in his second summer
coaching at Northview. Ter-
race.
"It's not super serious or
competitve. We work towards
getting better and improving
their strokes.”