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Cottage Grove Sentinel Sports & Recreation SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION Cottage Grove continues to get big wins • WEDNESDAY | MAY 8, 2019 • B1 CONTACT SPORTS EDITOR ZACH SILVA AT 942-3325 OR ZSILVA@CGSENTINEL.COM North Douglas dominant in pair of wins Cottage Grove baseball team goes 3-1 on week as they look for a playoff spot By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Aft er starting Tuesday with a home loss to El- mira, Dan Geiszler had a message for the Cottage Grove baseball team. “Our season is on the line. We’ve got to win this second game. I’m not going to fi ll you full of anything that’s false infor- mation because we have to,” he recalled telling his team between games during a double-header at home. It was the second week in a row the team has been in a must-win situ- ation and, yet again, the Lions responded. Aft er falling to the Falcons (12- 6, 6-4 Sky-Em) in the fi rst game of the day 4-3, it was Cottage Grove (11-10, 8-4) storming back for a 6-3 win to end the day. Th is key victory added to a pair of wins against Siuslaw on Friday, keeps Cottage Grove’s postsea- son hopes alive. “If you would have told me in the beginning of the season we were in this position, I wouldn’t have bought it,” Geiszler said of his team that is now tied for second in league en- tering a pivotal fi nal week of the season. “We keep getting better every day. We really have gotten bet- ter every single day and every game. It’s exciting.” Relying on three under- classmen pitchers, it was the Falcons squeaking out a one-run game one victory. Elmira took an early lead and the Lions were unable to get timely hits as they left nine run- ners on base throughout the game. Cottage Grove senior Wyatt Sayles got the start but came off the mound with an injury during the third inning. Ezra Centers pitched the rest of the game for the Lions. In the second game of the day, the Lions were, again, looking for a time- ly hit. Th e team had bas- es loaded in the second inning with one out and runners on third in both the third and fourth but had no runs to show for it. Instead, a fi ft h inning that saw three Elmira bat- ters hit by pitches helped the visiting side build-up a 3-0 lead. “It felt like, geez, we’re going to break through. It’s never for a lack of ef- fort,” said Geiszler. “But I know our kids, they’re going to battle and they’re not going to give in, that’s for sure.” And in the sixth inning, the Lions fi nally broke through. It began with se- nior Koltin Britton getting walked to start the inning followed by an Elmira error that turned what could have been a routine double play into runners on fi rst and second. A single from Kellen Ben- nett loaded the bases for Noah Spink who blasted a grounder through the left side of the infi eld to score a pair of runs. Aft er senior Jayden LIONS see B2 North Douglas junior Nicki Derrick delivers a pitch against Central Linn on Friday. Derrick threw a no-hitter in game one and struck out a total of 27 batters on the day. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Th e Warriors 10-run Central Linn twice in matchup between top 1A teams By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com On paper, it looked like it was an evenly matched game. It was Central Linn, the highest scoring team in 1A that averages 17 runs per game, against North Doug- las, a team that has given up 21 runs all season. Th e two top-fi ve ranked teams met in Drain for a double-header on Friday looking to make a statement. Th e games were anything but close on Friday as the Warriors (22-1, 15-0 SD3) dominated – including a no-hitter in game one and walk-off homer in game two – on the way to a pair of 10-0 wins over the visiting Cobras (21-4, 14-3). “Man, the girls hit really, really well. And Nicki was just really on her game today. Man, she pitched well,” said North Douglas head coach Jesse Rice. As it has all season, North Douglas’ success started in the pitching circle with ju- nior Nicki Derrick. Derrick, who threw a perfect game last Tuesday against a strug- gling Yoncalla (2-18, 0-15) side, showed she can also take on the best off ense in 1A as she struck out 16 of 18 bat- ters on the way to a no-hitter in game one. “She is such a competitor and the more the competi- tion, the better she gets. In fact, against some of these teams in our league, kind of hard to keep her focused but boy you put her in a big game situation like today and she knuckles down and throws everything she has,” said Rice of his junior ace who missed last season with a torn ACL. Despite having scored 78 runs in the four games they had played throughout the week, the Cobras were not ready for Derrick. “My frustration in the fi rst game was we had kids swinging for the fences and (we were) telling them every single inning, ‘We’re not go- ing to do that. We scored 24 runs yesterday, it’s not going to happen today,’” said Cen- tral Linn head coach Marcus Campbell. “We couldn’t get bunts down. We wanted to make them do something be- sides Nicki terrorizing us.” And while the North Douglas defense was hold- ing back Central Linn, then it was time for the bats to get going. A run in the second and third innings gave the Warriors a small advantage but then in the sixth inning the team went to work scor- ing eight runs on their way to 10-running the Cobras. A single from Derrick started off the inning and she scored off of a grounder from junior Natalie Draeger. Af- ter fi elding errors and some made plays by the infi eld, it was bases loaded with two outs. And then the Warriors capitalized. Riley Black was walked to bring in a run, Halli Vaughn’s hit to right dropped in out of reach to score two. Derrick singled again which set up a Hope Ward single that scored two. Th en it was Draeger with another hit in the inning to bring in the 10th run of the game and fi ft h with two outs to fi nish the contest. “One of the things that we focused on was if you hit it hard on the ground, punch it through that infi eld, we’re going to start scoring runs. And they did it. Th ey did real well. Kept it on the ground,” said Rice. Game two picked up where the fi rst game ended as North Douglas tallied four runs in the fi rst inning with hits, again, from, Black, Vaughn, Derrick, Ward and Draeger. Two more runs in the second and the Warriors held a 6-0 lead. Derrick stayed dominant in the pitching circle as she gave up two hits and struck out 11. Th e Warriors were slowed on the bats in the middle in- nings as Central Linn tried to hold off anymore big innings. “Honestly, if this one would have ended 6-0, I WARRIORS see B3 Strength in (small) numbers Elkton track and fi eld team gets big results from small team By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com A Elkton’s Margaret Byle (top) and Sadie Olson (bottom) compete at last year’s state track meet. The duo are look- ing to make it back to state this season. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Athlete of the Week s the school bell ush- ers in the end of the day, there is a fl urry of activi- ty in the parking lot at Elkton High School. Newly minted drivers hop into their trucks and whip through the lot while half-full busses jour- ney out to their next stop. In an instant, the parking lot is once again calm and, more importantly, empty. A group of four students – Sadie Olson, Margaret Byle, Kassie Yeaney and Lance Corvinus – who had been waiting at a table under the awning, head to the center of the parking lot to begin practice. Th e cars are cleared out and the group begins their warmups, com- plete their drills and work on Th is week’s athlete of the week is Cottage Grove distance runner Jimmy Talley. Talley recorded the second fastest 4A 3000 time in a second- place fi nish at Friday’s Wally Ciochetti Invitational. To read more about Talley and Cottage Grove track as the team prepares for this weekend’s district meet, turn to B3. being state-caliber track and fi eld athletes. “Th ese streets and hills are our track,” said head coach Ken Maxwell as his team of four athletes begin going through their routine. With the closest track facilities about 30 miles away (north- east in Cottage Grove, west in Reedsport and south in Oakland), the Elks use what they have. And what they have is working. For the second year in a row, Elkton has two ath- letes, sophomore Margaret Byle in sprints and junior Sa- die Olson in throws, among the top competitors in their events in all of 1A. Not bad for a team of four people. “When these guys go out, they dazzle people,” said Maxwell. “Training and sheer determination. I think it all boils down to that. I’ve got some tough cookies.” n the spring, there are two options for sports at I Elkton: soft ball or track and fi eld (or, for boys, baseball or track and fi eld). Since soft ball would mean having to get in a van and go to Yoncalla ev- ery day since the teams co- opt, in her freshman year Sa- die Olson decided she would do track and fi eld. Th at sea- son Olson was one of three people on the team. “People like to do soft ball and baseball because it’s a team sport. But track is kind of a team sport, like I still get to hang out with the team, I just compete as an individu- al,” said Olson theorizing on why track and fi eld isn’t pop- ular at Elkton. “I think they might like to do those other spring sports and maybe , I don’t know, since it’s starting to get warmer maybe they want to do their own thing and have their own fun in- stead of go to practice and run all the time.” In that fi rst season, Olson ELKS see B4 Cottage Grove junior Jimmy Talley races out to a fast start earlier this season. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/ CG SENTINEL
