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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1987)
page 6 - vrv: . NiK- COLTON'S FASTBALL Willamina High School senior and Tribal member Doug Colton has high hopes for a career playing baseball in the pro leagues. Its small wonder, with the record he's been able to compile playing vJ high school baseball. Durina this vear. Colton has led his l" i I team in many ways. He has struck out 135 Darters in 62 innings ana com piled a 0.22 earned-run average for the season. He has pitched four no hitter games, and made nine home runs as the team's best hitter. Chris Leno lets it fly WILLAMINA BULLDOG BASEBALL Some ten years ago, many of the play ers on the Willamina High School Baseball team began playing ball on a team sponsored by the tribe. They won the league championship every year but the first and after two years of traveling to Warm Springs, took the tournament championship there too. For the past three years, the Willam ina Bulldogs have won the West Valley League Championship, and in 1986 took the Class A baseball title. In 1987, they were the number 1 ranked Class A team in the state. For the Tribe, they represent a lot of pride, since six of the fourteen players are Grand Ronde Tribal mem bers. They are: Doug Colton, Mike Colton, Chris Leno, Steve Bobb Jr., Joe Larsen, and Jim Bruckner. For the 1987 season, the Bulldogs compiled a record of 16-1 in league, and an incredible 28-2 record over all. Much of the Bulldog's strength comes from their strong line-up of pitch ers. Doug Colton and Jim Bruckner both pitch for the team. Colton is considered a pro-league candidate because of his speed ball. The Bulldogs are also one of the state's top hitting teams batting in the 400s as a team. Tribal member Doug Colton is the team's batting 1 If ? N' Mike Colton gets congratulations after a "downtowner" leader, hitting .586. Tribal mem bers, Jim Bruckner batted .470 and catcher Mike Colton , hit .456. Team member Brett Bishop hit .471 and Steve Nokleby batted .456 for the season. Their strong batting average has helped the team outscore their oppo nent by a wide margin. For instance, six games into the season, the Bull dogs had outscored their opponents 53 to 12. The team also did well against Class AA schools, beating Toledo 11-3 and 17-1, Woodburn 4-2 and Jefferson 17-7 during the season. Their one regular season loss was to Jefferson in a double header. The team's coach is Buz Tautfest. He has coached for 13 years. He's a pretty good guy," said Colton. "He really helped us out working on the fundamentals. A lot of hit and prac tice," said Colton. The Bulldogs were on their way to winning back to back state Class A championships, but bad weather de stroyed their hopes. The team was up 3-0 in the championship game, but rain resulted in the game being postphoned after two innings. After waiting an hour, the game was cancelled. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the rain stopped minutes after the game was cancelled. The game was rescheduled, and an off day saw the team's back-to-back championship dreams vanish as the Bulldogs lost to Salem Academy 5-1. But for many of the Bulldogs, another season awaits their mastery of the game. Their team is relatively young, with seven of their starters juniors. Doug Colton, the only starting senior, graduates this year. He hopes to play in the pro-leagues. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde congratulates the Bulldogs on an outstanding season and on a fine team effort! b... ...... .J -4, ,...-.- Doug Colton preprares to tire. Indeed, its been quite a season for Colton, who has had many pro-league scouts watching him play and radaring his fast ball. Colton' s top recorded radar speed is 92 miles per hour. His average is in the 80's. Scouts watching is game included representa tives from the Expos, Philies, Angles, Brewers, Twins and Dodgers to name a few. Colton would like to one day play for the Braves, his favorite team. For now, unless of course, he is drafted into the professional league, Colton plans to go to College. Colton plans to attend Pima College in Ari zona or LinnBenton Community College in Albany. Both colleges have excel lent baseball teams. The Linn-Benton team has won the state title the last couple of years, and Pima College is considered the top baseball Jr. Col lege in the Nation. Colton has also recently been se lected to play on the West team for the East-West Class A Ail-Star Base ball Series. Last year, Colton, as an Oregon All Star Team member got to travel to Australia to play ball.
