Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2018)
B S PORTS Section B Warriors start season Wednesday, April 4, 2018 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 541-942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Cottage Grove softball stumbles in home opener With clear skies, North Douglas baseball starts season 1-2 By Zach Silva A wise man named Drake once cooed the line: “bet- ter late than never but never late is better.” While he was presumably not talking about the North Douglas baseball team’s schedule, he might as well have been. While the OSAA baseball season is in its third week and there are teams who have played nine games in the young season, it was the Warriors – after a fl urry of rainouts – taking the fi eld for the fi rst-time last Thursday. “Our goal is always to have six games played by the time you get to the end of spring break. Spring break being a week later, you ought to have eight, nine played and we’re playing our fi rst game,” said head coach Jeff Davis on a rare sunny after- noon last week. “This is unusual and the weird thing it got so hot – well not hot – dry today that we got dust fl ying where yes- terday we had mud. So who knows? Baseball in Western Oregon.” The Warriors hosted Lost River in a double-header and each team walked away with one win on the day. In the fi rst game, it was the Warriors taking control for a 7-3 victory. In the fourth inning a small-ball approach saw a string of bunts scored a pair of runs from Carson Burris and Brian Erickson. A Caleb Parks double in the fi fth inning followed by a Koldan Frieze single helped spark North Douglas again for two more runs in the in- ning. Friezie fi nished the game two-for-four and also recorded a double. While the Warriors pitching staff gave up just one hit in the game, the team also walked nine batters. “I thought in the fi rst game where that young sopho- more (Aiden McAuliffe) that pitched for them had good stuff and we were not getting good swings at him. Show- ing bunt, bunting a little bit sort of got us moving offen- sively. We put some pressure on him as a young pitcher. Put some pressure on their defense. So I was glad to see us make that adjustment in the game,” said Davis. In the second game, the Raiders rode pitcher Zakary Girtman’s complete game for an 8-4 victory. The Warriors came out swinging with Kyle Bowen and Parks both hit- ting singles in the fi rst inning and scoring. Parks added two stolen bases in the inning as well. Central Linn answered in the second with a four- run inning that included that began with their eight and nine hitters getting walked and leadoff hitter Zack Turn- er hitting a double to bring them both in. The Warriors fi nished the day with fi ve hits. “Today was a measuring During a 26-4 loss last week, Cottage Grove coach Cheryl Frieze watches on as North Marion players celebrate an out. Lions lose big at home, won game over spring break By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com The scoreboard at the Cottage Grove softball fi eld currently has no power thanks to the ongoing construction of the new elementary school next door. After the Lions lost 26-4 last Thursday, that may be for the best. While the Lions (2-4) have outper- formed last season’s winless season, it was a remnant of the past as Cottage Grove stumbled in its home opener against North Marion (5-4). “It really depends on which team shows up. We’ve got a team that comes in and they’re ready to go and we’ve got a team that’s down in the dumps from the get-go or they just feel defeated from the beginning,” said head coach Cheryl Frieze. “And I think if we can get them to stay upbeat and positive from the beginning then we will defi nitely be competitive. But if we can’t pull that team out of the hat, then we’re going to struggle a little bit and we’re going to have some down days.” In the early innings, the Lions stayed competitive and heading into the third in- ning even held a 2-1 lead. The game took a turn in the top of the third inning when the Huskies came out fi ring on all cylin- ders. The fi rst six batters for the Huskies all got on base and scored without giving up an out. After two more North Marion runs, Cottage Grove was able to get out of the inning. After handling the Lions in the bottom of the third, North Marion was at it again in the fourth inning as they hung 14 runs on the Lions and were scoring at will. Cottage Grove was not helping them- selves in the inning as they struggled at seemingly every position: bobbled balls in the outfi eld, passed balls that advanced runners, balls hit to infi elders that record- ed no outs and an unfortunate series of events that saw a ball hit in the infi eld and a series of past balls that scored the batter. With two outs, North Marion’s Ally Umbenhower hit a triple and was on third base when she turned to head coach Jon Santos and said, “this is my third time to bat this inning.” On the next pitch, Umbenhower advanced from third base early resulting in the fi nal out of the inning which signaled the end of a pain- ful inning for Cottage Grove. It was the only base running error the Huskies had all game. Santos had no visible reaction to the out. Cottage Grove pitcher Chloe Malmst- edt pitched the entire game and fi nished with three strike outs. “No. No we were, we were missing like four key players. And so actually all my pitchers were all on the fi eld and we weren’t able to get them enough warm- up time to get them to switch pitching out,” said Frieze regarding if a pitching change was discussed. “And my other pitcher, she was not, she was still sore from (the) Seaside (tournament).” In the fi fth inning, the Lions held North Marion scoreless and scored two runs of their own before the game was called because of the 10-run rule. Frieze’s mes- sage to the team after the game was sim- ple and about being able to turn the page. “What we talked about was just being able to recover from mistakes and not let us continue to drive us down,” she said. “Working during practice and just mak- ing sure that when we make a mistake acknowledge that a mistake was made and move on and forget about it. Use it as a learning tool instead of something that holds you back.” Earlier in the week, the Lions went 1-2 in the Seaside tournament that included a 16-10 victory over Valley Catholic. North Douglas wins double-header, fall to Central Linn Warriors' bats spark home victories but 10-run ruled on road By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL After having the beginning of the season plagued with rain, the North Douglas softball team was able to get some games in last week. Last Thursday at home the Warriors (3-1) hosted Lost River (2-5) in a double-header where they won both games before falling to fourth ranked Central Linn on the road. With pitcher Nicki Derrick, who helped guide the team to a state title last season, out with a torn ACL, the Warriors are still fi gur- ing out the new team. “Well I tell you, today was the big test against a quality team like Lost River. I told the girls, you know what, we’re still in the hunt, we can still do this,” said head coach Natalie Draeger comes up with a hit last Thursday at home against Central Linn. Athlete of the Week Jesse Rice. “Them going out and playing as well as they did today – you can tell them all day long that we’re going to be good but until they see it for themselves. Today they realized hey, we are still in this we’re doing good.” In the fi rst game of the day, a 6-3 Warriors victory, North Douglas’ Amy Dooley led the way with a double, a single and a pair of RBIs. Hope Morgan had two stolen bases and the team had six hits. In the second game, North Douglas jumped to a fast start scoring four runs in the fi rst and fi ve runs in the second inning. Contributions came from everywhere as Lilly Downie had a double and two RBIs, Natalie Draeger added two singles and Riley Black had a double and a single. The team fi nished with 10 hits in the game. “Hope, who had to step in and step up, re- ally did a good job today. She pitched both games and did really well. And like we said from the beginning, defense will win the ball- game. And our defense stepped up again so ND Softball continued on B3 This week’s athlete of the week is Cottage Grove’s Jaace Cross. Last week against Marshfi eld, Cross was three-for-three, was walked once and had 4 RBIs in an 11-1 victory. To read more about CG baseball, turn to B3. ND Baseball continued on B3 541-942-7561 2150 N. Douglas St – Cottage Grove JOIN US FOR SHOP LOCAL ȃ BUSINESS NIGHT Late Models, Limited Sprints, IMCA Modiϐieds, Street Stocks, Hornets Event Start Times: Front Gates 3pm, Hot Laps 5pm, Qualifying 5:30pm, Racing Starts 6pm www.cottagegrovespeedway.com CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK zsilva@cgsentinel.com
