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.”
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