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
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2150 N. Douglas St – Cottage Grove
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