Cottage Grove Sentinel
Sports
Sports & Leisure
B1
THURSDAY | APRIL 22, 2021
Lions on hunt for first victory
By Jon Stinnett
April 22
For The Sentinel
M
JON STINNETT/FOR THE SENTINEL
Cottage Grove Lions junior Braedon Buckland winds up to throw against Marist
during last Friday’s doubleheader with the Spartans. This Friday, the Lions will face
Marshfield in another doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.
ora than a year after the pandem-
ic lockdown ended baseball at
Kelley Field, the Cottage Grove
Lions finally returned home Tuesday, April
13, and they were greeted with a nail-biter
against the Siuslaw Vikings that was unde-
cided until the last out.
Siuslaw jumped out to an early lead, but
the Lions would soon counter. The turn-
ing point came in the fifth inning, as the
Vikings took advantage of control issues
for Cottage Grove pitchers to erupt for five
runs. The Lions kept battling, however, but
came up just short — dropping their season
opener, 11-9.
Junior Braedon Buckland started on the
mound for Cottage Grove, walking the first
two Vikings, who were knocked home on a
double by Siuslaw’s Jason Garcia in the top
of the first inning. On the same play, Garcia
was nailed trying to stretch his hit to a tri-
ple by junior center fielder Logan Lowrey,
who threw a scorcher to third-baseman
Carter Parsons.
The Lions rebounded for four runs in the
second. Paul Logan and Lowrey walked,
and then freshman shortstop Christian
Spear lined a double to score them both.
Later, freshman Peyton Glenn doubled to
score Spear and catcher Crimson Tadlock.
Buckland shut down the Vikings during
their trip to the plate in the second, with
the Lions adding a run in their half of the
inning to go up 5-3. Siuslaw responded
with three runs of their own to re-take
the lead, 6-5. Buckland reached his allot-
ted pitch count and was relieved first by
Spear, then Logan and Christian Kane. The
Vikings were held in check in during fourth
inning, but their five-run fifth put the
Lions’ backs against the wall.
To their credit, though, the home team
never gave up. Kane shut out the Vikings
on the mound in the sixth and seventh
innings. A two-run single in the bottom
of the fifth narrowed the deficit, and the
Lions went down in order in the sixth. Two
singles in the seventh, though, cut Siuslaw’s
See LIONS 3B
Lady Lions defeat Vikings, fall to Spartans
By Jon Stinnett
For The Sentinel
What a long, strange “offsea-
son” it’s been.
Last March, first-year coach-
ing tandem Kris and Danielle
Challburg had prepared the Cot-
tage Grove Lions softball team
for its first game of the 2020 sea-
son. We’re all at least somewhat
familiar with what happened
next: The Friday before their
first game, the lockdown ini-
tiated to stop the spread of the
COVID-19 virus put all sports
on a long hiatus.
“Until COVID hit, we were
practicing hard, and we were on
such a roll,” Kris said. “Then we
had two seniors that didn’t even
get a season. We were pretty
bummed about that. But a lot of
the girls that were on that team
carried over to this year, and
their growth has been great.”
Last Tuesday (April 13), the
Lions finally took their home
field to begin the newly format-
ted six-week 2021 season by
welcoming the Siuslaw Vikings
to town. Senior pitcher Kailey
Cox, showing little sign of rust
following the long pause, turned
in a masterful performance, al-
lowing just four hits and striking
Note: Game times and
dates are subject to change
• Elkton baseball
at Creswell 4:30 pm
April 23
• CG Baseball at
Marshfield 3/5 pm
• CG Softball at
Marshfield 3/5 pm
• Elkton Baseball at
North D/Yoncalla
Noon/2 pm
• ND Softball hosts
Glide 2/4:30 pm
• Yoncalla Softball
hosts ND 2/4:30 pm
April 24
• CG Track & Field at
Junction City Inv.
Noon
• Elkton Track & Field
Junction City Inv.
Noon
April 27
• CGHS Softball
host Elmira 5 pm
• CGHS Softball
hosts Elmira 5 pm
• Elkton Softball
hosts Lowell
4:30 pm
• Elkton Baseball
at Glide 4:30 pm
• ND Softball at
Monroe 4:30 pm
• Yoncalla Softball
hosts Oakland
4:30 pm
April 30
JON STINNETT/FOR THE SENTINEL
Lady Lions senior pitcher Kailey Cox sends a pitch toward the plate against the Spartans during
last Friday’s doubleheader at home against Marist.
out eight Vikings batters as the
Lions won easily, 17-3.
The team also benefited from
a fiery afternoon at the plate by
Athlete of
the Week
senior Kayla Challburg, who also lauded the performance of
went three-for-four with four catcher Josie Hitt, who acted as
RBIs and crossed the plate three
See SOFTBALL 4B
times. Coach Danielle Challburg
Th is week’s Athlete
of the Week is CGHS
senior soft ball
Kayla Challburg
Cottage
Grove High
School
senior Kayla
Challburg
went 3-for-4
with 4 RBIs
and three
runs scored
against
Siuslaw in
the season
opener
• Elkton Baseball
hosts Oakland
2/4:30 p.m.
• Elkton Softball
hosts Oakland
2/4:30 pm
• ND Softball
hosts Days Creek
Noon/2 pm
• CG Track & Field
At Siuslaw 4 pm
Results:
April 20
• CGHS Baseball
lost to J. City: 16-1
• CGHS Softball
lost to J. City: 20-19