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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2019)
Cottage Grove Sentinel Sports & Recreation SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION • WEDNESDAY | APRIL 17, 2019 • B1 CONTACT SPORT EDITOR ZACH SILVA AT 942-3325 OR ZSILVA@CGSENTINEL.COM Warriors Lions start Sky-Em season with split keep on winning North Douglas soft ball rolling through season with no end in sight By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com From the start of the season, the North Doug- las soft ball team has had a target on its back. “Everybody is gunning for us,” said head coach Jesse Rice at the start of the season. “It defi nite- ly puts pressure on you, defi nitely puts pressure on the girls. But this group, they handle that pressure pretty well, they really do.” So far this season, the Warriors have done just that as they are current- ly 10-1 on the season, ranked number four by the OSAA and second in the coaches’ poll. Th e lone loss on the season came in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of third- ranked Union/Cove. It is by no means a sur- prise that the Warriors are the focus of teams around the state as they have made it at least to the state quarterfi nals for the past fi ve seasons. Aft er losing to eventual champion Kennedy in last year’s quarterfi nals, the team is back again with top talent includ- ing state-winning pitcher Nicki Derrick who was out last season with an ACL injury. “We know that we’re a high level team to other teams so we know we’re going to get their best shot day in and day out,” said Derrick at the start of the year. “So we’re kind of prepared for that but our mentality is kind of one game at a time, ev- erybody is equal.” Th rough the fi rst 11 games this year, the Warriors have outscored their opponents 115-14. Most recently, North Douglas defeated Yon- calla/Elkton 26-1 last Tuesday on the road. While all score lines may not be as lopsided going forward, the Warriors have only a couple teams in league, Special Dis- trict 3, that have a chance to give it any trouble. At the top of the list is fi ft h-ranked Central Linn. Th e Cobras have just one loss on the year and have scored the most runs in all of 1A/2A soft - ball. Th e next team up is Oakland at 7-1. Th e Oakers are the only oth- er team in the 10-team league with a winning record. What this means for the Warriors is that in the fi nal 15 games of the season, the team will have just four games against teams with a win- ning record. Th is week, North Douglas has a full slate of games as they faced Rid- dle at home on Monday, a double-header with Days Creek on Tuesday (all of which came af- ter Th e Sentinel’s press deadline) and two more games against Oakridge on Wednesday. Cottage Grove junior Hunter Sharkey delivers a pitch in a road loss at Elmira on Friday. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Cottage Grove opens up league play with win against Marshfi eld, loss at Elmira By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com With the bases loaded, two outs and an 0-2 count against 10th ranked Elmira, Friday’s baseball game for Cottage Grove took a turn. Th e visit- ing Lions (4-7, 1-1 Sky-Em) held a three-run lead at this pivotal moment in the fi ft h inning and were ready to head to the dugout when a shot to deep right fi eld from Ayden Wolgamott swung the game in favor of the Falcons (8-2, 2-2). “We were a strike away. To be honest, they had their leadoff hitter up and I thought, I really thought, the way today is going, we’re going to get out of this,” said Cottage Grove head coach Dan Geiszler. “And when he hit the ball, I thought, ‘We got it.’” Th ey didn’t get it as Wol- gamott’s double brought in three runs to tie the game. Th e Falcons went on to score four more runs in the inning to take a lead they would never relinquish as it locked in a 12-7 victory. During the pivotal fi ft h inning, Elmira recorded fi ve of their nine hits in the game and capitalized on errors from Cottage Grove – passed balls, dropped pop-ups, walks – that seemed to build on one another. “Absolutely that happens. Th ere’s no other sport that that happens more in,” said Geiszler of the team’s mis- takes. “Little tiny things just kind of compound and compound and then they’ve scored seven runs. It just keeps going and it’s hard to stop sometimes.” While the Lions saw their errors as adding up, Elmira saw it as their hitters fi nding their swing. “Sometimes that’s how it’s been, the bats just explode and we get a bunch of runs. Th at’s kind of what happened in this game. Th ey snowball,” said Elmira’s head coach Ryan Wolgamott. “It’s been that way, it’s been contagious sometimes. We’ll go three, four innings without scoring a run and then all of a sud- den our bats will explode and we’ll score fi ve and then six the next inning.” Th e Lions were able to threaten once more in the game with the bases load- ed in the seventh inning. A strikeout and a fl y ball saw the end of the rally and the game. Earlier in the game, Cot- tage Grove’s Paul Logan got the scoring started in the third inning aft er some in- fi eld errors from Elmira. Wy- att Sayles, who had two hits on the day, also scored in the inning for Cottage Grove. Elmira responded with four runs of their own in the third inning to take the lead before the Lions scored four in the fourth and one in the fi ft h. In the fourth, it was Cottage Grove’s Walker Humphreys tying the game with an out of the park two- run home run. Humphreys fi nished with two hits on the day. In addition to some time- ly hits, the Lions were able fi nd ways to score by being aggressive on the base paths. Five diff erent Cottage Grove baserunners recorded a steal. “We do a good job of running the bases and a lot of what happens is you see their middle infi elder wor- ried about our guy at second and they’re doing stuff and it makes it a little more chaot- ic for the defense and that’s kind of our goal,” said Geisz- ler “We don’t have the biggest off ensive team, we’re not go- ing to hit many home runs and drive people in. So we’ve got to run and do things to hopefully get the defense a little bit on edge and make them make mistakes is kind LIONS see B2 Elmira’s infi elders watch as an overthrown ball goes to left fi eld allowing Cottage Grove senior Koltin Britton to record a run. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Cottage Grove’s Roberts heading home Aft er 12 years at CGHS, Gary Roberts is going to Marshfi eld By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Gary Roberts addresses the Cottage Grove football team in January announcing that he will no longer be head coach. Roberts announced last week that he will be leaving CGHS and will be going to work at Marshfi eld High School. PHOTO BY Cottage Grove High School’s Gary Roberts – who for the last 12 years has served in various roles such as foot- ball coach, athletic director, assistant principal, dean of students and social studies teacher – is going back to Coos Bay. A Marshfi eld High School graduate, Roberts is leaving Cottage Grove and will be Marshfi eld’s assistant principal starting next school year. ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Athlete of the Week Th is week’s athlete of the week is Cottage Grove’s Mitchell Krokus. Competing against 33 teams at the Prefontaine Rotary Invitational, Krokus fi nished fi rst in triple jump and second in long jump. To read more about the meet, turn to B3. “It was a very tough deci- sion for me, but the opportu- nity to move to where I grew up and spend more time with the family was too much to turn down,” said Roberts in an email to the CGHS coach- es on Th ursday aft ernoon. Roberts was approached for the position “a couple months ago” and as he start- ed to explore it as an oppor- tunity, it was just too good to pass up. “Just being the assistant principal will provide me more time to be with my family. I won’t be at school three nights a week until 9 o’clock,” said Roberts sitting in his offi ce at CGHS on Fri- day morning. “And then, it’s where I grew up; it’s home. It’s always been a special place for me. Th at was kind of the biggest thing behind the decision, a chance to go home. Th e chance to have more time to spend with my wife and my kids.” While he is leaving, Rob- erts noted that decision was made diffi cult because of the relationships he has built over the years. “It’s hard because I’ve been here for 12 years. Th e peo- ple that I work with here in the building, the teachers the coaches that I work with are great people and they do ROBERTS see B3 Cottage Grove junior Mitchell Krokus com- petes in the triple jump earlier this season. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/ CG SENTINEL
