Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2019)
2B | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Trojans triumph over Warriors in semifinals In defensive battle, Kennedy baseball gets 1-0 victory over North Douglas By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com Th e best North Douglas baseball season in the last quarter-century came to a diffi cult end on Tuesday night. In the state semi- fi nals at Kennedy High School, it was the Trojans (28-2) squeaking out a 1-0 victory over the Warriors (22-7) to advance to the 1A/2A championship. “You have to be proud of what we accomplished,” said North Douglas head coach Jeff Davis on his team that made the semifi nals for the fi rst time since 1995. “At the moment this hurts like the dickens, in particular for our seniors.” In the semifi nal, it was a game of defense. And more specifi cally, a game where both starting pitch- ers – North Douglas junior Colter Anderson and Ken- nedy’s Josh Valladares – set the tone. While each team’s scorebook had a diff erent number of hits recorded, what can be agreed on is that number was quite low. North Douglas fi nished the game with two hits as a team and the Trojans had either one, according to the North Douglas scorebook, or it was a Warriors’ no-hit- ter, and an error on the play, according to the Kennedy scorebook. Th e lone-hit – or error – occurred in the third in- ning on a short-hop hit by Cameron Biegel that got past the North Douglas shortstop. Biegel stole sec- ond on a passed ball and got to third off of a sacrifi ce bunt. On the bunt, no one from North Douglas cov- ered fi rst and the Trojans had runners on the corners, and then promptly second and third aft er a steal, with no outs. A line drive to short- stop Brian Erickson on the next at-bat almost resulted a double play that would have got the lead runner out. Instead, Biegel was safe at third and scored on a grounder to Erickson on the next play. “Th at’s it. To be honest, that’s kind of been our MO all year,” said Kennedy head coach Kevin Moff att on his team being able to capital- ize on miscues. “Th e fi rst two rounds the other team kicked the ball a little bit, we didn’t hit too well. We knew that North Douglas would not kick the ball. I thought we hit a little bet- ter today but their kid, he threw a jam. He’s got good movement on his fastball, nice curveball. Th ey’re just good.” Moff att continued, “Th eir shortstop is a dude, their centerfi elder – best arm I’ve seen. Th ey’ve got some guys on that team. And again, they’re really well coached. Th ey make you game plan diff erently because [head coach] Jeff [Davis] is always doing the little things right.” For the Warriors, the team had its best chance to score in the third inning. Aft er Anderson reached base via a walk and stole second, Tyler Kallinger hit a ball deep to center fi eld that was scooped up by a sprinting Bruce Beyer in for an out to end the inning. “Th e ball Kallinger hits, in the gap, that gets down against another team,” said Davis. “In a game that you know is going to be tight, that’s huge. And that’s what we’ve heard, they’re going to pitch pretty well and de- fend well.” “Th e play that the Bey- er kid made, he’s kind of been that guy since his sophomore year, he’s been pretty darn good. And that was as good of one as he’s made,” said Moff att. “And we’re not super-fast in the outfi eld but we seem to get pretty good jumps on it and move around a little bit. We’re pretty happy when they put it in play. As long as we don’t walk people we feel pretty comfortable that we’re going to have a chance to win.” As the North Doug- las defense continued to stand pat, the off ense came up with hits from Austin Frieze and Koldan Frieze in the sixth and seventh in- ning respectively. While the team applied pressure, it was never enough to break through as Kennedy se- cured a shutout to advance to the championship. “Man, you’ve really got to tip your hat to those guys. Th ey are really well coached, really good defen- North Douglas pitcher Colter Anderson controlled the game from the mound for the Warriors. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA sive team. Th at was a hell of go to the state champion- a game. Th at’s how a state ship match at the begin- semifi nal should be,” said ning of the season, I prob- Moff att. Th e Trojans will ably would have chuckled now face Umpqua Valley at them and thought, not Christian, a team North with this team. We’re a lit- Douglas beat twice this sea- tle young. But these guys are fi ghters,” he said. “What son, in Friday’s fi nal. Pained by the loss, North a run we’ve made just for Douglas senior Cal Parks the little ol’ town of Drain was able to put the team’s to have such a good season. historic season in perspec- It’s just been a fun season.” In Friday’s championship tive. “If somebody would have game, UVC defeated Ken- said we were going to the nedy 10-5 in nine innings. semis and had a chance to North Douglas stuns Monroe in quarterfinals During a dominant off ensive performance, North Douglas junior Tyler Kallinger safely slides into home. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com All season Monroe was dominant. Th e Dragons (23-2) scored more runs than any team in the 1A/2A classifi - cation and won games by over 10 runs 16 times this season. And last Friday it was North Douglas (22-6) going on the road to face this dominant team. “When confi dence grows, you don’t care who you’re going to play,” said North Douglas head coach Jeff Davis of his team af- ter the game. “Otherwise you’re scared to come up here. And we’re not, I don’t think we’re scared of any- body right now. We’re play- ing really well.” Th e Warriors turned that confi dence into high-pow- ered off ense and strong pitching as it was North Douglas pulling off a state quarterfi nals upset over Monroe with a 12-3 victory. Wasting no time, North Douglas, capitalizing on Monroe errors, put a run on the board in the fi rst inning. Th e Dragons an- swered right back with a run of their own in the fi rst while putting on a hitting display as each batter put the ball in play. “First inning, it bothered me a little bit but I realized that I have defense behind me, they can make plays for me and I don’t have to strike everybody out,” said North Douglas pitcher Bri- an Erickson. “As long as I throw strikes and get the ball in play, our defense can do the job and we can just do what we did. And that momentum carried to our side and we started scoring runs and making plays.” Erickson gave up just three hits on the day as he struck out four and walked two. He pitched for 6 1/3 inning in order to make sure he was under the pitch count so that he would be able to pitch on the upcom- ing Tuesday semifi nal. While Erickson was holding down the Mon- roe bats, it was the North Douglas hitting that sprung to life. Th e Warriors fi n- ished with 12 hits in the game with contributions from up and down the ros- ter. “Well, the old saying is hitting is contagious. And the middle of our lineup has been swinging it pret- ty well the last two weeks but we’ve told these guys all along that they’re capable, top to bottom, of getting the ball in play and making things happen,” said Davis. Cal Parks went 2-for-4, Wyatt Beckham was 2-for- 5 and three RBIs while Koldan Frieze was 1-for- two with three walks and three runs. Leading the way for the Warriors was lead- off Tyler Kallinger who went 3-for-4 and scored four runs. “Th e main point for the last week has been hitting because we haven’t real- ly collectively hit good as a group. Like put every- thing together. Th at’s what we practiced all week and we came through,” said Kallinger. “We always try to attack. First pitch, fastball and that’s what we’re wait- ing on and we saw quite a bit of those and jumped on them today.” Aft er adding a pair of runs in the third inning, North Douglas poured it on in the fourth as they took advantage of the Mon- roe pitching change and scored three more runs as they hit through the lineup. It was a similar story in the sixth inning as the team capitalized on multiple bas- es loaded situations. Th e Warriors continued to put the ball in play and capital- ized on errors and aggres- sive base-running. “We took some chanc- es but when you’re ahead you can put the pressure on the other guys. And we made them do things that I’m sure they’re not accus- tomed to do because, you know -- we’ve benefi tted from, and no disrespect to them, but playing some pretty good teams in our league,” said Rice. With the win, the War- riors are headed to their fi rst baseball semifi nal since 1995. “It’s crazy. I had never imagined we would be do- ing this,” said Beckham. “It’s awesome to play an- other day with these kids. I couldn’t be any happier.” Come experience our new laser Dentistry without anesthesia South Valley Athletics Summer Sports!! June 5th • June 12th • June 19th South Valley Athletics SUMMER CAMPS AND ADULT SOCCER! ADULT SOCCER (for anyone 15 years and older) Register by June 9th • $45 per person (no team fee) Bring your own team or register individually and play on the house team! VOLLEYBALL for kids entering 3rd thru 6th grade Register by June 10th • $40 CHEER for kids entering K thru 6th grade Register by June 28th • $40 TENNIS for kids entering K thru 12th grade Register by July 26th • $50 Check our website for more information! Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter! Or call/text us at 541-942-3079. Brent Bitner, DDS DENTISTRY WITH FAMILY IN MIND C ALL U S T ODAY ! 541.942.7934 350 E. W ASHINGTON A VENUE • C OTTAGE G ROVE WWW.CGSMILES.COM