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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2018)
B S PORTS Section B North Douglas wins one in series Wednesday, April 18, 2018 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 541-942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Luzier's no-hitter guides Elkton to win Warriors go 1-2 against Oakridge, are second place in league By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com In a battle of the Warriors, it was Oakridge that came out on top over North Doug- las. The two baseball team’s that use the same mascot had their three-game weeklong series last week that saw Oakridge (7-2, 5-1) take the series 2-1 over North Doug- las (5-4, 4-2). In the fi rst meeting, last Tuesday, it was Oakridge walking away with an 8-6 come from behind victory in Drain. In the fi rst inning, North Douglas had the bases loaded with one out when Oakridge’s catcher put his arm on display and threw out a runner who had taken time getting back to the base after the pitch. With two outs, the home team rallied when the catcher tried to throw Caleb Parks out at third but an over thrown ball resulted in Parks scor- ing a run for North Douglas. Wyatt Beckham’s single then scored Kondan Freize and Carson Burris from second and third and the warriors carried a 3-0 lead to the sec- ond inning. The bats stayed hot for North Douglas as Koldan Frieze’s double, his fi rst of two on the game, scored Parks. Austin Frieize, Parks and Koldan Frieze all record- ed hits in the third inning. Defensively, North Douglas was holding it down as pitch- er Carson Burris struck out fi ve batters in the fi rst three innings. The tides began to turn in the fourth inning as Oakridge started to get on base. A walk, a single and a hit batter mixed with stolen bases and passed balls saw the visiting team score three runs in the inning all with two outs. It was more of the same for Oakridge in the fi fth inning as two hits coupled with three batters getting walked resulted in another three runs and their fi rst lead of the game at 6-4. “All those clichés you hear are so true about playing not to lose and rather than to win and you can just feel that. I went out and talked to the kids and said you know, if this was a 0-0 game right now you guys would be han- dling this totally different,” said North Douglas head coach Jeff Davis. “I told them it’s exactly the same. We’re tied right now. It’s a league game, we’re tied, what are we going to do? It’s part of it’s a process, some of it is personality and some of it is high school ath- letics, you know how it ebbs and fl ows.” A pair of runs in the sev- enth inning for Oakridge extended their lead before North Douglas scored one last run in the bottom of the inning. “It would have been nice to keep this at 6-5 and for us to come in and tie it up or win one coming from behind like they did. They’ll get a lot of that, not because it was us but because they came from behind 4-0,” said Davis. “Their kids are the kids we’ve known for years and… they are very talented and are an upperclassman ND Baseball continued on B2 PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Austin Luzier is locked in as he delivers a pitch on Saturday. Luzier struck out 14 batters and gave up no hits in the win. The Elks sweep Lowell to get back to .500 on the season By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com At the start of the season, Elkton’s Austin Luzier preferred not to pitch. “I like catching and shortstop, I don’t like getting on the mound very much,” said Luzier in early March. He might like pitching now. Luzier was able to enjoy his time on the mound last Saturday as he threw a no-hitter and struck out 14 batters as the Elks beat Lowell 11-0 in fi ve innings. “It’s a good feeling. It wasn’t the best game, there were a few errors but we did pretty good as a team I think,” said Lu- zier. While there were no hits, it was not a perfect game as he walked a pair batters, including the fi rst at-bat of the game, and a fi elding error in the third saw a run- ner get on base. Regardless, Luzier was seemingly untouchable on the mound as his strikeouts accounted for every out after the fi rst inning. Additionally, in the second and fi fth innings he struck out each batter he faced. “Well, Will Shaw, (Coach Bill) Shaw’s grandson came down and helped me with pitching. And ever since, my fast ball has been getting higher and my curveball has been breaking more,” said Luzier. “And everything has been getting better and my defense has been picking me up be- hind me.” More than individual success, Elkton/ Yoncalla (4-4, 3-3) was able to walk away with a pair of wins over a winless Lowell team (0-6, 0-9) to move back to .500 on the season and in league-play. “I think you saw today, I think we’re getting better. I still worry sometimes. Like we get a guy on base and we’ve done some shaky things in the past not backing up our pitcher. But today of course Austin did a pretty good job tak- ing care of himself,” said head coach Bill Shaw. Offensively, it was Luzier leading the way as he came up with three of the team’s fi ve hits with a double and a pair of singles. Where they lacked in hits, they made up in fi nding ways to get on base. The Elks were walked 10 times, with Spencer Moore being walked three times, to go along with nine defensive er- rors from Lowell. The Elks scored their runs in bunches coming away with fi ve in the third inning and four in the fi fth inning. “Last night we had a pretty good round of batting practice with some of my guys who haven’t hit real well. And then to- day they had good at bats. They didn’t necessarily all get great hits but they had way better at bats,” said Shaw. “You know whether we fouled off pitchers or we found a way to get on base and that makes me feel better when I see us start to get a hold of it better.” In the second game of the double-head- er day on Saturday, it was Brad Doudna fi nding success for the Elks as he struck out 14 batters in six innings of play on the way to a 10-0 win. Luzier, again, led the team with three of their fi ve hits as he recorded three singles. Last Tuesday, in the fi rst game of the series, the Elks won 13-0. In the win Doudna threw eight strikeouts while Lu- zier added three. The Elks are now two games back from fi rst place in league and now have a series this week against winless Mohawk (0-6, 0-10) before heading into three se- ries against the top three teams in the league over the next month. “Really the battle is to try and work our way into the league tournament. And so for us that means win this series against Lowell, win the series next week against Mohawk and then fi nd some way to win one of the series with Oakridge, North Douglas or Monroe,” said Shaw. Elkton's Cooper Peters dives back to fi rst as Lowell pitcher Mason Wendt attempts to pick him off. Cottage Grove hosts league golf match By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Cottage Grove's AJ Boitz tees off on Friday at Middlefi eld Golf Course. Athlete of the Week Last Friday the Cottage Grove boys golf team host- ed the teams of Special District 2 at Middlefi eld Golf Course for a league match. The league that features familiar Sky-Em foes (Sis- ters, Junction City, Sutherlin and Sweet Home) also includes Cascade, Newport, North Marion and Stayton and is one of four districts at the 4A level. As the rain stayed off the course, the teams were able to get in a full round that saw Cascade take fi rst place as a team with 329 strokes. Stayton placed second at 335 strokes. “Cascade and Stayton are usually – they’re the two teams that are fi ghting it out to see who is going to win our league,” said Cottage Grove head coach Kent Russo. “That’s good representation, though. If they can fi n- ish in the middle of the pack (at state) that would be just fi ne.” For Cottage Grove, the team took fi fth place of the fi ve full teams that competed. Dawson Husko shot a team best 99 on the day. The other scorers for the Li- ons were Johnny Bench at 101 strokes, Kaden Eriksen with 10 and an impressive 43 on the front nine, and AJ Boitz at 111. “Yeah, I’ve got to tell you I have none for my team,” said Russo when asked about the expectations for his team. “They’re just not golfers yet.” While Russo is certain of how his team will fare the rest of this season, he is thinking of how his team, that features a pair of freshman and a sophomore, will be able to compete in the future. “The future looks like it’s going to be okay. We’re not going to be good right away but by the time those kids are juniors and seniors, I think they’ll be reason- able again,” said Russo. “And we can go out and actu- ally play a round of golf and think we’re going to be in the middle of everything.” Especially notable in that group is the play of fresh- men Kaden Eriksen. “His swing is a little jacked, we’re working on it, but he drives the ball pretty darn well and he’s got a little bit of an idea of how to play this game so he’s going to improve quickly. More quickly than the others,” said Russo. “And he’s got a really good friend, Thane Parsons (who played JV today). That’s what it takes. I think I probably told you that earlier in the year, the guys that are friends that go out and play golf together otherwise they won’t go out. So I think those two being ninth graders, and they’re absolutely loving the golf thing, so I expect them to get better over the next couple of years. A lot better. I’m hoping that works out.” This week’s athlete of the week is Hunter Hall. Hall, a member of the Cottage Grove track and fi eld team, won the shot put, javelin and discus competition at Thursday’s track meet at Sisters. PHOTO BY CGHS PHOTORAPHY
