Cottage Grove Sentinel
Sports & Recreation
SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION
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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