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Cottage Grove Sentinel Sports & Recreation SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION • • WEDNESDAY | JUNE 5, 2019 B1 CONTACT SPORTS EDITOR ZACH SILVA AT 942-3325 OR ZSILVA@CGSENTINEL.COM WARRIORS TAKE SOFTBALL STATE TITLE Left: North Douglas pitcher Nicki Derrick celebrates after recording a strikeout to end Friday’s state championship game in a 15-6 win over Kennedy. Top: Catcher Sofi a Alcan- tar rises to her feet after the fi nal out of the day. Bottom: The North Douglas team comes together after securing the win. PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL AND BECKY GERRARD North Douglas soft ball wins second state title in last three seasons By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com With what seemed like the entire community of Drain watching in the stands, the North Douglas soft ball team put on a show during Friday’s state cham- pionship. “I tell ya, I would say most of Drain showed up for the game today. We had so many fans here, it was fantastic,” said North Douglas head coach Jesse Rice. “And I’m sure they’re going to follow us all the way home and give us no rest for about a week. I mean, the community is fi red up and they should be because it was a really, really good performance by these girls.” Th e ninth-seeded War- riors (28-3) gave their fans plenty to cheer about at Jane Sanders Stadium as the team, in front of a crowd of 1,107 people, claimed its second soft ball state title in the last three seasons with a 15-6 win over defending champions and seventh seed Kennedy (22-5). As North Douglas had done all season, the team paired a dominant pitch- ing performance from ju- nior Nicki Derrick — who recorded 16 strikeouts — with a barrage of hits on the way to a win. Kennedy, a team the Warriors have now faced in six straight playoff s, had given up just four runs throughout the postseason. “When we got here, we just played with no fear. Th ere were no nerves in- volved and that showed,” said Derrick, one of six North Douglas players who was on the 2017 champion- ship team. “Th is just means everything. I’m very proud of myself but I’m even more proud — this was a whole diff erent team. Some peo- ple really had to step up to make this happen. Th at means the most to me.” All season the junior pitcher — who struck out a staggering 57 percent of the batters she faced, recorded six no hitters and two per- fect games — was dominant against everyone. But espe- cially against the best teams North Douglas faced. In the regular season, it was Der- rick recording a no-hitter against Oakland and a pair of shutouts against Cen- tral Linn, two of the best teams in the league. In the playoff s, it was yet another no-hitter against Lakeview in the state semifi nals, just one game aft er shutting out the number one team Grant Union. And on Friday, it was more of the same domi- nance as she tallied strike- out aft er strikeout. “Oh my goodness. I hon- estly didn’t even realize that [I struck out 16 batters]. I thought maybe like nine or something,” said Der- rick. “You just have to keep pitching and not worry about stats or anything. Not Junior Natalie Draeger fi nished the day with four hits and was named player of the game. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL worry about the score and that’s kind of what it is.” “Wow. What a game,” echoed her head coach Rice. “Just the fact that she is so confi dent. I’ve said many a times, for a 16-year- old girl, for her to have the confi dence and the belief in herself that she has is just great. I mean, she comes out there and just knows that she can throw well and that she has a great defense behind her.” Derrick was in control early with fi ve strikeouts against the fi rst eight bat- ters. Th e Trojans applied some pressure with the bas- es loaded and one out in the third inning, but Derrick answered with back-to- back strikeouts. “I just had to stay locked in mentally,” she said. “If my confi dence waivers, it spreads to the whole team and I knew I was in the middle of a very big stage so I just had to do my job.” Kennedy fi nished with six hits as a team and began to fi nd an off ensive rhythm as the game progressed. Th e Trojans recorded two runs in the fourth, which were initially contested when Kennedy’s Rylie Newton collided with North Doug- las shortstop Halli Vaughn, before adding two more runs in both the fi ft h and sixth innings. But the Warriors weren’t worried. “Defensively, we’ve played solid all year but off ense has sputtered every once in awhile. But to come out against a team like Ken- nedy and hit the way we did, was great,” said Rice. “Th e girls really, really be- lieved in themselves today.” Aft er one inning of play, and the game still knotted at zero, the Warriors had complete faith that they were going to fi nish the day as champions. In the top of the fi rst inning, the Warriors made solid con- tact including two balls hit to the outfi eld. While it was a quick three outs, the team knew that hits were going to come. “At fi rst we kind of didn’t know about the pitcher and so we didn’t know what was CHAMPIONS see B3 How they got there: the road to Jane Sanders Stadium Quarterfi nals: North Semifi nals: Derrick lift s Familiar foe awaits Douglas scores road win Warriors to title game NDHS in state final By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Th e Warriors are headed home. “Boy it feels good,” said North Douglas soft ball head coach Jesse Rice aft er the team’s near 900-mile road trip around Oregon in the early rounds of the playoff s. During that trip the ninth-seeded — but fi ft h ranked — Warriors started off the state playoff s with a 12-7 win over Bonanza (17-10) on May 22, which was followed up by a 5-0 victory on May 24 against top-ranked Grant Union (22-3) in the state quarter- fi nals. Entering the game, the top-ranked Prospectors had a 14-game winning streak in what had been a dominant season. But it was North Douglas scoring a run in the fi rst inning to set the tone. “It takes a lot of the pres- sure off . Scoring that fi rst run, you know that you can score against this team and you know — it just kind of QUARTERS Athletes of the Week see B3 By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Th e formula for North Douglas soft ball success has been pretty simple: if Nicki Derrick is playing, the team has a good chance to win. It worked again on Tues- day as Derrick threw a no-hitter and hit a two-run homerun as she guided the ninth-seeded Warriors (27-3) to a 2-0 victory over 20-seed Lakeview (20-9). Th e home semifi nal victo- ry gave the Warriors a spot in Friday’s state champion- ship game at Jane Sanders Stadium in Eugene at 5 p.m. “I’m always amazed that Nicki can handle the pres- sure the way she does. She’s 16 years old but I mean, the composure she has – and, again, she wasn’t getting a couple calls from the um- pire – but wasn’t getting frustrated. Was mentally focused,” said North Doug- las head coach Jesse Rice. “She did really well.” Derrick threw 10 strike- outs in the game and Th is week’s athletes of the week are the members of the North Douglas soft ball team. Pitcher Nicki Derrick struck out 16 while the Warriors came away with 14 hits to defeat Kennedy 15-6 in the state championship game. SEMIS see B3 By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Once again it is Ken- nedy and North Douglas playing in the soft ball state playoff s. But this time, the state championship is on the line. “One of us was always knocking the other one out of the state playoff s. And so this year, it’s nice that we’re actually going to meet in the state championship rather than knocking one or the other out early,” said North Douglas head coach Jesse Rice, adding, “Two years ago, we knocked them out and last year they knocked us out of the play- off s, so, it’s like I told the girls, it’s our turn to get this one.” Playing at University of Oregon’s Jane Sanders Sta- dium on Friday at 5 p.m., the teams will meet for the sixth consecutive season in the playoff s. Th e Warriors lead the head-to-head 3-2 during this stretch. In that time, North Douglas won both fi rst round matchups (2014 and 2015), Kennedy FINALS see B3 With fi rst place medals around their necks and a state cham- pionship trophy, the state-cham- pion Warriors pose for a picture after Friday’s game. PHOTO BY BECKY GERRARD