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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2016)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, May 11, 2016 Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Lions one win away from taking Sky-Em; only Elmira can contest for tie With the regular season coming to an end, Cottage Grove's worst possible outcome would be a tie for fi rst with Elmira BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel Only one team stands in the way of the Lions and the Sky- Em title, and even if Cottage Grove loses their last two games against Elmira, they will still be tied for fi rst in league play. After defeating the Sweet Home Huskies twice in a row, Cottage Grove sits at 11-2 in league play and 16-6 overall, while the Falcons are 9-4 in league play and 15-6 overall. Therefore, the worst possible outcome for the Lions will be a league tie at 11-4. However, the patterns this season suggest that Cottage Grove has a more than fair chance to take the Sky-Em alone. The Lions have already de- feated the Falcons in mid-April, 7-5. Although it was a tough battle that took the game into ex- tra innings, Cottage Grove came out fi rst, starting rallies, steal- ing bases and racking up runs. The only issue that the Lions will have to work on from their last meeting with the Falcons is their closing game. While there have been many games since then that have shown improve- ment, the last two wins against Sweet Home show that there is still work to be done. The Lions went up 8-6 by the end of the fourth inning after allowing fi ve runs in the bot- tom of the third. Cottage Grove managed to extend its lead 12-6, a comfortable margin going into the fi nal half-inning. But the Huskies started a rally and were able to rack up four runs before the Lions were able to put them away. Two days later, a similar incident occurred. Cottage Grove was up 4-0 at the start of the sixth inning, but the Huskies scored three in the Athlete of the Week Photo by Gary Ordway Hunter Harris pitches against Elmira. The senior has racked up a total of 38 stikeouts in 39 innings. sixth and one in the top of the seventh to tie the game 4-4. For- tunately, the Lions have shown their ability to endure and shine in high-pressure situations such as the nine-inning game against Sutherlin, where Cottage Grove prevailed 4-3. The Lions snuck away with one extra run off of a base hit to end the game. More errors and slower play is more likely to happen later in the game, but there is still some defensive tidying up to do. But Cottage Grove shouldn’t fret too much. Brett Ollivant has proved himself a capable pitcher throughout the season, and fi rst baseman Hunter Harris has just the arm to relieve Ollivant in the fi nal two innings. The senior Harris has a low earned run average (ERA) of 1.94. Ollivant’s is a little lower at 1.51, but that can be attributed to Harris pitching a lot more at R. Ashley, Cox, Donahoo, and Corley collect Cottage Grove wins BY BEN DEATHERAGE For the Sentinel The streak of wonderful rac- ing at Cottage Grove Speedway continued when action resumed at the historic quarter-mile clay oval on Saturday, May 7. Even though there were some other large activities in the vicinity, the Cottage Grove facility was still able to attract a decent car count and a pretty good crowd. Classes competing included the Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, Late Models, and the Quality RV Repair Hor- nets. The Clark Printing Extreme Sprints started with Roseburg’s Don Waddell the car to beat. Waddell put up a phenomenal performance and blazed the trail for the fi rst 10 laps. He was overtaken on lap 11 by Ricky Ashley from Thurston. Ash- ley worked consistently on the high side and found himself being chased quickly by some challengers, notably Cottage Grove’s Patrick Dills. Ashley was able to maintain the top place position for the rest of the distance to collect his fi rst career CGS Sprint Car victory. It was also the fi rst oc- casion that the #85 Maxim had made it to the winner’s circle as his two previous Sprint Car wins at Sunset Speedway Park in 2012 were in a car he did not regularly drive. Dills placed second, followed by Eugene pilot Raquel Ivie in third. Medford native Dave Hibbard was fourth, and com- pleting the top fi ve was Rose- burg’s Dusty Redmond. Dills was the fast time of the night, and victorious in the Dot’s Trophy Shop Trophy Dash was Sutherlin teenager Cooper Des- biens. It was female domina- tion in the heat races as Raquel Ivie and Boston, Massachusetts driver Allison Journey were the winners. A very entertaining IMCA Modifi ed race occurred. Kinzer Cox snatched the lead early. The Cottage Grove youngster surrendered the lead on lap three to Eric Ashley. Ashley, of Jasper, set a very wicked pace but ultimately lost the position to Cox on lap 17. Cox stayed up front the rest of the way to win his fi rst race of 2016. Eric Ashley ended the evening the runner-up, while Cottage Grove’s Tyler Smith was third. The rest of the top fi ve would consist of Springfi eld native Ste- ven Sturdevant in fourth, while fi fth place went to Jake Mayden, also out of Springfi eld. Kinzer Cox was the fast time in qualifying, and Cot- tage Grove’s Curtis Towns was the winner of the Dot’s Trophy Shop Trophy Dash. Only one heat race was run during the night, and Ashley fi nished in fi rst place. The Late Model feature would practically go from green to checkered. There was a cau- tion on the opening start, but it would be the only time that the fi eld would be bunched back up. Lebanon ace Josh Sim put himself at the front on lap one. Sim held the lead for a little bit before being passed by Salem’s Britton Donahoo. Donahoo had no issues after getting to the lead. Donahoo cruised the rest of the distance to win his fi rst career Late Model event. Mike Peters from Cottage Grove was fast time, and Britton Donahoo was the winner of the Trophy Dash. Like the IMCA Modifi eds, only one heat race was run, and Donahoo was the victor. Last but not least was the Quality RV Repair Hornets. Junction City’s Marcel Forte led the fi rst circuit. Forte held the position until lap fi ve, when Josh Corley made it around him. Corley, of Westfi r, stayed there for quite some time. With just a few laps to go, Ve- neta’s Joe Maricle got by Josh Corley and pulled away. Un- fortunately Maricle went off the top of turns one and two with a couple of laps to go, giving the lead back to Corley. Corley stayed up front the rest of the distance to win his third straight main event of 2016. Marcel Forte was second, followed by Springfi eld’s K.C. Please see SPEEDWAY, Page 2B the beginning of the season. Ol- livant may have the lower ERA, but Harris has the lowest batting average against him at .174 in just under 40 innings pitched. He also leads the team in strike- outs with 38 of the Lions' 105 strikeouts on the season. This is what makes Harris the best clos- ing pitcher for Cottage Grove. His fi erce pitching leaves bat- ters struggling to make contact with the ball. And since the se- nior will only pitch two, maybe three innings as a closer, he doesn’t have to hold back in fear of tiring out his arm. Closing and hitting will be the Lions keys to success in the last two regular season games. The Lions sit at a .276 batting av- erage while the Falcons barely surpass that with a .297. Cottage Grove is known around the league for being ag- gressive when it comes to bas- Senior Hunter Harris (left) goes into his last two regular season games as a Lion this week. The fi rst baseman has delivered 38 strikeouts on the mound, holds a .323 batting average with 21 hits and 17 RBIs. He also holds the lowest batting average against a pitcher with .174 and an ERA of 1.94 erunning, and currently holds 85 stolen bases. However, the Falcons have even more at 104 stolen bases. The Falcons are ahead of the Lions in most sta- tistical categories, but Cottage Grove holds the most important statistic, and that is the win over Elmira. Tough competition at Wally Ciochetti Invitational Tharpe fi fth, Albrecht third at home meet Photo by Sam Wright Reily Boyce leaped his way into the top 10 in the long jump on Friday. After coming off of a great road performance last week, the Cottage Grove track and fi eld squad saw a much tougher com- petition from many 4A teams they had yet to see. For the boys, Henley took fi rst, followed by North Bend in second, Scappoose in third, Newport in fourth and Cottage Grove in fi fth. For the girls, Siuslaw took a surprising fi rst- place win, followed by Scap- poose and Henley in second and third. Cottage Grove fi nished ninth overall. The Lions came very close to fi rst place in a lot of events but just didn’t hold out against some stronger programs. Con- nor Howard fi nished in second place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.44 seconds, and Michael Tharpe grabbed fourth with 11.44 seconds. Howard also placed third in the 200-me- ter with 22.98, both times shy of a personal best. In the 3000-meter race, fresh- man Konrad Raum ran a very strong race to fi nish in fi fth in 9:32.71. Raum was one of two freshmen to fi nish in the top fi ve, and the other one was Siuslaw Please see TRACK & FIELD, Page 2B Join us May 13th & May 14th $5.00 FAST FRIDAY MAY 13TH Clark Printing Sprints & PHRA Dwarf Cars Kids 12 and under are free and 13 and over is just 5 bucks! Gates open at 5pm and racing starts at 7pm SATURDAY MAY 14TH GRAD NIGHT All high school seniors are FREE with ASB card!! Clark Printing Sprints, PHRA Dwarf Cars, Late Models, Quality RV Hornets Normal time and price on Saturday
