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