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