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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2019)
Cottage Grove Sentinel Sports & Recreation SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION Pirates roll past Lions for pair of wins • WEDNESDAY | MAY 1, 2019 • B1 CONTACT SPORTS EDITOR ZACH SILVA AT 942-3325 OR ZSILVA@CGSENTINEL.COM Ready, set, race: Speedway starts season Cottage Grove soft ball seeks small victories in most recent losses By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com While Cottage Grove soft ball team’s quest for their fi rst win of the sea- son will continue into next week, the Lions were focused on other versions of success last Friday against Marshfi eld. “Really trying to keep our energy up and not getting down,” said Cot- tage Grove head soft ball coach Cheryl Frieze aft er the team’s double-head- er loss. “And then focus more on the little things and the individual things like win that at-bat. In the fi eld, make the play. Or if you mess up, make the next play. Just really over- come those downfalls so that way they can pick it up and recover and keep moving through.” Against Marshfi eld at home last Friday, it was the Pirates (7-10, 4-5) taking victories of 25-12 and 21-3* against the Li- ons (0-15, 0-9). In the fi rst game, it was the Lions refusing to be 10-runned as they were able to string enough runs together each inning to stay with- in striking distance before Marshfi eld poured on seven runs in the seventh inning to cement their victory. In game two, Cottage Grove hung around early and trailed 1-0 aft er the fi rst inning of play. But in the second inning, the fl ood gates opened and Marshfi eld put 13 runs on the board as 17 bat- ters batted in the inning. While Cottage Grove was unable to match the same off ensive production, their bats stayed active. “If we’re putting the ball in play and they’re mak- ing the plays, great. But you’re putting the ball in play and you can’t do any- thing unless you do that. Th at was kind of the goal and I think we were real- ly successful as far as that goes,” said Frieze. “We put the ball in play a lot and they made plays. Or we hit it right to them. But that’s part of building that confi dence, hey, you’re making good contact so let’s keep rolling with that and roll into the next games.” For the Pirates, the key to a double-header in which they twice score at least 20 runs was staying locked in. “Just trying to keep the focus when the game gets a little slow because we do play Marist on Tuesday. It’s like, ok, we’ve got to get refocused for Tues- day,” said Marshfi eld head coach Brooke Toy. Th roughout the season, the Pirates have been a team stuck in the middle of the Sky-Em league. Marshfi eld has been 10-runned by Marist, El- mira and Junction City while promptly defeat- ing Siuslaw and Cottage Grove. “We’ve been like a half a *OSAA’s website has the score as 20-4, but the Cottage Grove offi cial scorebook, which Th e Sentinel trusts, has the score listed as 21-3. LIONS see B3 IMCA Modifi eds race at the Cottage Grove Speedway on Friday night. After fi ve weeks of cancelled races, the weather held up and allowed fans to fl ock to the Speedway over the weekend to watch the Spring Fling. To read more about the races, turn to B2. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Cottage Grove prepares for playoff push Cottage Grove’s Jaxon Simmons rounds third and heads home during a loss against Junc- tion City last week. Simmons recorded three hits against the Tigers. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Lions get pair of ‘must-win’ games as they enter the fi nal two weeks of the By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com With two weeks to go in the regular season, Cottage Grove is right where they want to be. But not where they expected to be. “If at the beginning of the year if we would have said, ‘Hey, with seven games left we’re going to be right in the mix.’ I would have said, yeah, I’ll take it right now,” said head coach Dan Geisz- ler earlier this week. While the Lions stumbled out of the gate with a 1-5 start, the team Oakers top Elks, Elkton searching for wins has since rebounded and are right in the mix near the top of the Sky-Em standings. Junction City and Marist (not factoring in games played on Tuesday April 30 which come aft er Th e Senti- nel’s print deadline) are cur- rently at the top of the league standings at 7-2 while Elmi- ra and Cottage Grove are a game and a half back at 5-3. Aft er falling to Oakland, the Elkton baseball team is looking to turn things around in fi nal weeks of season By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Multiple weather delays from Mother Nature – including a snow storm and fl ooding – paired with a new league that features top teams and an inexperienced team has cre- ated a tough start to the league sea- son for the Elkton baseball team. Aft er diving into league play with Athletes of the Week “We haven’t really talk- ed about a league champi- onship, it’s defi nitely in the cards because we play Marist and we play Junction City two more times. And we play Elmira. Th e three teams we’re tied with or ahead of us so it’s really in our hands,” said Geiszler. “But that being said, I don’t know if we have the fi repower to go out and win fi ve games against those three teams. Th at would be incredibly diffi cult. Doable, but incredibly diffi cult.” Th e top two teams out of the Sky-Em league re- ceive automatic spots in the state playoff while the next eight teams receive at-large bids. Th e Lions are current- ly ranked 20th but Geiszler would like to see his team move into the 17 to 18 range by the fi nal rankings to en- sure a spot in the postseason. Th e Lions (8-9, 5-3 Sky- Em) began last week with an 11-8 home loss to Junction City (13-4, 7-2). Th rough the fi rst fi ve in- nings, the game was lining up for Cottage Grove to pull off an upset of the sixth ranked Tigers. Ace Wyatt Sayles back-to-back series’ against number one ranked Umpqua Valley Chris- tian (19-1, 12-0 Special District 4) and 12th ranked Glide (10-6, 9-3), the Elks (2-9, 0-9) faced off with Oakland (5-11-1, 3-9) last week. Just as it was against UVC and Glide, Elk- ton lost all three games. “Well, you know, we recognize that we are in a diff erent league this year. And so, boy, in this league ev- ery team is tough,” said Elkton head coach Bill Shaw. “I hear stories about Riddle and young players that are re- ally good and I even here that Glen- dale is much improved. So, I don’t know – this is a tough league sched- Th is week’s athletes of the week are the members of the Cottage Grove varsity girls’ bowling team. Last week the team was honored at a City Council meeting for their successful season. was on the mound and the team began fi nding runs in the second inning. Cottage Grove got on the board af- ter drawing four consecutive walks setting up senior Jaxon Simmons for a hit down the right fi eld line that scored three. Simmons’ work wasn’t done on the day as he brought in another in the fi ft h inning with a single to right that gave the Lions an 8-3 advan- tage. Simmons recorded a team-high three hits. While the Lions carried a fi ve-run lead into the sixth inning, the Tigers then sprang to life. “I think we needed some- thing to spark us and you know, baseball is funny and when you get a hit it’s conta- gious and that’s kind of what happened for us,” said Junc- tion City head coach Tony Stavros. “Sometimes you can’t explain things, you just try to go up and have good at bats and put good swings on it. Th at’s pretty much what happened. We were able to get some big knocks and bat- tle.” COTTAGE GROVE see B3 ule.” Th e Oakers – a team that entered the series on a nine-game losing streak of their own (with losses to Glide, UVC and 15th-ranked North Douglas) – were able to win by a score of 11-4 on Tuesday and 9-3 and 17-0 in a double-header on Fri- day. In the fi rst game on Friday, it was an early outpouring of Oakland runs, picking up four in the fi rst and two in the second, getting things started. “It allows you to take a deep breath but, unfortunately, I think our kids weren’t mature enough and they ELKS see B2 The CGHS bowling team with Cottage Grove mayor Jeff Gowing. PHOTO C/O NATALIE CARDOZA
