2B
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 8, 2015
B ASEBALL
Continued from 1B
photo by Matt Hollander
Cottage Grove's Zach Thomason didn't have his best day against the Warriors, but he
delivered several critical outs along the way.
Speedway's season gets off to
a hot start, continues Friday
Kofoid, Williamson, Towns
and Maricle pick up wins on
opening night
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
For the Sentinel
T
he Cottage Grove Speedway’s 2015
season offi cially began on Saturday,
April 4. With a full crowd on hand, the his-
toric 1/4-mile clay oval hosted 360 Sprints,
IMCA Modifi eds, Late Models and the Hor-
nets.
In the 360 Sprint main event, California’s
Micheal Kofoid took the lead from the start
and maintained his lead through several re-
starts to win in his fi rst ever trip to CGS.
Garen Linder from Central Point was
second place, and Vern Wheeler fi nished in
third.
Seth Nunes of Medford and Springfi eld’s
Allison Journey fi nished fourth and fi fth, re-
spectively.
Twenty-four entrants lined up for the start
of the IMCA Modifi eds. Coburg’s Jesse Wil-
liamson overtook Cottage Grove’s Curtis
Towns on lap eight en route to victory.
Jesse Bailey from Central Point, William-
son and Towns each won heat races, and
Springfi eld’s Jake Mayden managed to pick
up the victory in the consolation feature.
Rob Mayea of Bend led the Late Model
race early before spinning out on lap 10 due
to contact.
Towns later overcame LaPine’s Trent El-
liott for fi rst place.
Veneta driver Kevin Ropchan managed to
fi nish in second followed by Rob Campos of
Scio.
Mayea fi nished fourth, ahead of Bend’s
Darren Coffell in fi fth.
In the last event of the evening, 21 drivers
started in the Hornets race.
Joe Maricle of Veneta took care of busi-
ness after starting on the front row of the
main event.
A competitive battle for second place saw
Dexter’s Taunton Swain beat out Cottage
Grove’s Chris Pierce.
The balance of the top fi ve consisted of
James Donaldson from Dexter and Kasey
Johnson, in fourth and fi fth place, respec-
tively.
In addition to racing a special Easter Egg
activity took place where drivers handed out
eggs to kids in the crowd.
The Speedway has its fi rst Kage Kart race
scheduled for Friday, April 10, with its next
race for the 1/4-mile clay oval scheduled for
Saturday — also Retro T-Shirt Night.
Classes on the card include the Extreme
Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, Street Stocks and
Pro-4s. Those seeking more information can
visit www.cottagegrovespeedway.com.
wasn’t his best start, Thoma-
son and the Lions were able to
manufacture outs at opportune
moments.
The Warriors got solo home
runs from Austin Gerbing and
Croy in the fi fth and seventh in-
nings, respectively. Croy’s shot
gave Philomath its 4-2 lead.
Thomason, however, wasn’t
rattled.
“I’ve given up home runs be-
fore. I’ve learned to just let it
go, keep pitching my game and
have confi dence that we can get
it done at the plate,” he said.
Geiszler said he considered
taking Thomason out in the fi fth
inning but trusted that his senior
could get the job done.
“When you give up home
runs, you hope they’re solo home
runs because that’s still just two
runs, which can only hurt you
so much. It was the walks that
could have really hurt us — par-
ticularly those in the bottom of
the order. He struggled but he
found ways to get outs on a day
in which he didn’t have his best
stuff,” he said.
Wednesday’s game against
Philomath was rescheduled
from Tuesday due to rain. And
although afternoon showers
threatened to delay the game
once again, the skies cleared by
game time and mostly stayed
that way until the sixth inning.
Besides pregame fi eld prepara-
tions, neither coaches nor play-
ers thought that the weather
played a signifi cant factor in the
game.
“The rain wasn’t really an is-
sue,” said Thomason. “I just got
into my own head and really
had to focus and move around
on the mound in order to bring
my pitching back together.”
Geiszler admitted that the rain
might have impacted McGary’s
ability to fi eld Bellamy’s hit in
the seventh inning. But in the
end — no matter the weather, or
how many runners were left on
base — their resiliency struck a
chord of déjà vu for Geiszler.
“The determination at the end
to get it done says a lot about our
guys. It was very reminiscent of
last year’s Pleasant Hill game,
only this was a better team,” he
said.
The Lions wrapped up their
nonconference slate with a 7-5
win over Siuslaw at home on
Saturday. Stock went 2-for-2
and drove in two runs and Lucas
Ward also had two RBIs to lead
Cottage Grove (8-2) to the vic-
tory over the Vikings.
The No. 5 Lions were sched-
uled to open Sky-Em play at
Elmira on Monday and host
defending league champion Sis-
ters today at 4:30.
“We’re out to a faster start
than last year. We just have to
keep doing what we’re doing,”
said Stock.
League, to play their old Sky-
Em rival.
The loss to Pleasant Hill was
Cottage Grove’s second-straight
by 10 or more runs, and the
team spent some time afterward
in a soul-searching meeting.
“We’re struggling mentally
right now,” said Frieze. “ We
sensed it before spring break
and the vacation only made it
worse. We’re really trying to
recover by going back to the
drawing board.”
In looking ahead to their fi -
nal nonconference game Sat-
urday against South Umpqua,
Frieze said that regardless of
the outcome, she wanted to see
the team execute in the fi eld, be
confi dent at the plate and be ag-
gressive on the bases.
Cottage Grove (3-5) lost to
the Lancers, 6-4, but showed
marked improvement.
K’alea Galbreath went 2-for-
4; Katie Lyons went 2-for-3 and
Kamryn Ortloff and Clarke each
went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Say-
les had three strikeouts with one
walk and allowed eight hits.
The road back to winning,
however, did not get any eas-
ier for the Lions, as they were
scheduled to open league play
against defending champion
Elmira on Monday.
Frieze said that the Falcons
would pose a particularly strong
challenge because the Lions
won’t have had any time to
practice following their game at
South Umpqua.
“It’s defi nitely a tough lead-
off for the league season, but
I know the girls are capable if,
mentally, we can wrap our heads
around it,” she said.
South Valley
Athletics 4/5/6
Grade Basket-
ball Tourney,
March 14
Boys Champions
Front row left to right:
Logan Marek, Justin
White, Drew Thomas
and Tristan Kane.
Back row left to right:
Assistant coach Brian
Kane, James Smith,
Drew Chapman,
Malakai Crane, Trevor
Reeder, Joey Carpen-
ter and coach Willie
Reeder.
Girls Champions
Left to right:Coach
Craig DeGarlais,
Gracie Anold, Abigail
Akin, Emma Hitt, Ken-
nedy Sturman-Royse,
Peyton Baird, Avree
Block, Halle DeGar-
lais, Haylee Sowa, and
Coach Mike Arnold.
S OFTBALL
Continued from 1B
to fi nd a good rhythm to the
season, but in this particular
game it was challenging for her
to rest and refocus without much
of a break between innings.
The Lions only had 19 at-bats
for the entire game. Many of the
balls that they put in play ended
up in the glove of Skelton, who
made or assisted on six put-outs.
The Billies went the entire game
without an error.
“You never know how these
things are going to go,” said
Pleasant Hill coach Steve Smith.
“But once we got going, we re-
ally got going, and that made it
hard for them. We also played
really well in the fi eld, and that
was the key.”
Smith added that it’s always
fun for the Billies, who now
play in the 3A Mountain Valley
photo by Matt Hollander
Cottage Grove coach Cheryl Frieze (second from right) had more than one meet-
ing with her infi elders during last Thursday's 16-2 loss to Pleasant Hill — the team's
fourth in a row. Frieze said that the team has struggled to regain its focus post spring
break. The Lions were scheduled to open Sky-Em League play at defending champion
Elmira on Monday.