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Bottlecaps eliminate North Coos
By John Gunther, Sports Editor
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 | No comments posted.
NORTH BEND — Vince Ampi tore up the opposing pitchers for the first three days of the American Legion Class A State Tournament at Clyde Allen Field.
On Monday, the Roseburg Pepsi catcher picked up his biggest hit of the tournament, a two-run single in the eighth inning that lifted the Bottlecaps to an 11-8 victory over host North Coos, eliminating the Waterfront and advancing Roseburg to the tournament’s final day.
Roseburg plays Ashland at noon today for a shot at North Medford in the championship game at 4 p.m. Ashland beat North Medford 12-1 to stay alive Monday afternoon.
The Bottlecaps led nearly all the way against North Coos on Monday, taking a quick 3-0 lead and then going up 5-4 after the Waterfront scored four runs in the third inning.
North Coos rallied to tie the game at eight in the top of the eighth inning, but couldn’t maintain the momentum in the bottom of the inning.
Elliott Aurdahl, the Waterfront’s third pitcher, had gotten out of trouble in the seventh by entering the game with a runner on first and getting three straight outs. But he struggled with the strike zone in the eighth. With one out, he hit Reid Martin with a pitch and then walked both Cameron Newell and Tyler Bullock.
That brought up Ampi, who had eight hits, seven runs and five RBIs in the first three days of the tournament, as well as a double and single earlier in the game Monday. Ampi ripped a 1-1 pitch past diving North Coos third baseman Jesse McClintock to bring home both Martin and Newell. Micah Audiss followed with a single to center to score Bullock, but Ampi had done the big damage.
“I was thinking the bases were loaded and we had to get runs,” he said. “I just wanted to hit the ball hard and put the ball in play.”
Ironically, Ampi didn’t hit it where he wanted to, but it worked out just fine for the Bottlecaps.
“I got barrel,” he said, referring to hitting the ball solidly. “I was trying to hit the ball up the middle or to the right side.”
With the three-run lead in place heading into the ninth inning, Roseburg coach Richie Charles handed the ball to Ampi to close the game out, and he quickly retired three straight batters, striking out Ryan Campbell for the final out.
Campell, who had a big tournament for the Waterfront, had scored the tying run in the top of the eighth inning, when he led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice by Jesse McClintock, and came home on a single to right by Dalton Iveans.
But, as was too often the case Monday, North Coos wasn’t able to capitalize on what could have been a bigger inning or get a good bounce at a key time.
Bryce Weidman followed the single by Iveans by lining a ball to right field — a hit that normally would go for a double and bring home the run.
Instead, the ball took a big hop and bounced right off the fence to Roseburg’s Audiss, who was able to hold Weidman to a single and keep Iveans from scoring. After Jake Stevens walked, Nic Canaday hit a hard ball behind first base, but Roseburg’s Cameron Sterling gathered it in and stepped on the bag before Canaday could get down the line, ending the inning.
When the final out was recorded, Roseburg was able to celebrate its third straight win in an elimination game.
“It’s nerve-wracking,” Ampi said. “Every game can be your last, and we’re not ready to be done yet.”
After losing to Ashland on the opening day, Roseburg has beaten the Willoughby Sonics, Grants Pass Miners and North Coos.
“Our kids are doing a great job,” Charles said. “They know the task at hand.”
The Bottlecaps came out with a bang Monday.
Newell led off the first inning with a single and Bullock put down a sacrifice bunt that turned into a single when he beat the throw to first. Ampi followed with an RBI double to left and Bullock scored on an error on the play.
Audiss walked and Sterling put down a bunt, though Stevens made a nice play to get Ampi at third. After another walk, Dillon Westwang hit an RBI single to score Audiss.
North Coos bounced back to take its only lead of the game in the third inning.
With one out, Weidman walked and Stevens and Canaday hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. Sklyer Walton flared a single to right to score Weidman. Joe Harris followed with a grounder up the middle, which might have been a double play ball, except that Harris easily beat the throw to first after Walton was forced out at second. Stevens scored on the play. With Campbell at the plate, Harris broke for second and Canaday raced home on the back end of the double steal. When the throw home got away from Ampi, Harris took off for third, just beating the tag at that base. He then scored on a wild pitch, giving North Coos a 4-3 lead.
The advantage was short-lived. Sterling led off Roseburg’s half of the third with a triple over Campbell in center, and Josh Davis followed with an RBI single. Davis later scored the go-ahead run on an error with two outs.
Roseburg added a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth inning — with errors playing a major role in all three runs — to go up 8-4.
Meanwhile, Roseburg’s second pitcher, Jay Tovey, shut North Coos down for three straight innings, killing any momentum the Waterfront might have built with its four-run third inning.
North Coos finally got to Tovey in the seventh, though again a key bounce favored Roseburg.
Iveans, leading off the inning, hit a screamer at Martin at third base. The ball bounced off Martin’s foot directly to Blake Cupp at shortstop, and he was able to throw Iveans out.
That out became huge, because Weidman followed the play by lining a home run over the left-field wall. After Stevens walked, Canaday hit a ball over the trees beyond the fence in left — his second home run of the tournament and the sixth for North Coos in four games.
Ultimately, though, Roseburg was left celebrating and North Coos was left reminiscing on a good summer.
“It was a good season,” said Canaday, one of the team’s youngest players. “There was a lot of learning.”
“We had a great season — especially after we started off slow,” added Weidman, one of the team’s veterans, who likely will pitch for Three Rivers, the Class AAA sister team of North Coos, next summer.
North Coos was in the state tournament for the second straight year, and made it past the opening weekend this time.
“We were one game deeper in the tournament than last year,” said North Coos coach Brad Horning.
But after losing a heartbreaker to North Medford on Sunday, the Waterfront paid for a slow start Monday.
“We came out and didn’t start that good,” said Weidman. “They just kept scoring runs and we didn’t.”
Meanwhile, the four North Coos errors proved costly.
“I though they played pretty good defense against us,” Horning said. “They were a little cleaner than we were.”
Horning hoped that the nine-inning format used for the final two days of the tournament — after the games were played in the seven-inning format the first three days — would favor the Waterfront.
“I thought we were going to be the better team because we’re more offensive,” Horning said. “They countered it with their defense.”
The Bottlecaps were ecstatic to escape with the win.
“That North Coos team, we’ve struggled with them all year,” Ampi said. “They’re a good team, but we’re a good team, too.”
Though the season ended for the Waterfront,assistant coach Quintin Hall saw many positives in the summer.
“They’re good kids,”said Hall, who coaches at Marshfield, adding that the American Legion program is a big boost for both his squad and Horning’s NorthBend team, as well as other area schools.
“My three kids coming back (Aurdahl, Campbell and Van Pulliam) played a bunch. Now we start getting ready for next year.”
The Pilots handed the Mavericks their first loss of the tournament and advanced to the final day of the tournament with their seven-inning win.
Ashland built up a 12-0 lead with a powerful offense, and got a three-hitter by pitchers Ian Kendall, Hayden Miller and Max Gordon.
The Pilots also had a 17-hit attack on offense.
Gordon had two doubles and a single and scored two runs. Jake Scarminach and Nick Hall also had three hits and Garrett Tygerson homered for the second straight day and scored three runs. Ashland had five extra-base hits.
Medford got two hits from Hayden Wolfe and scored just a single run in the seventh inning.
The Mavericks still are in the driver’s seat for the tournament title, because they await the winner of the morning game between Ashland and Roseburg and will have a pitching staff that, in theory, will be more rested than the winner of the early game today.
Monday’s Linescores
North Coos 004 000 310 — 8 11 4
Roseburg 302 012 03x — 11 14 2
Kyle Davis, Jake Stevens (1), Elliott Aurdahl (7), Geoff Van Pulliam (8) and Dalton Iveans; Chris Case, Jay Tovey (4), Tyler Bullock (8), Vince Ampi (9) and Ampi, Eaton Sweeden (9). 2B—Ros: Ampi. 3B—Ros: Blayne Sterling. HR—NC: Bryce Weidman, Nic Canaday.
Ashland 210 063 0 — 12 17 1
North Medford 000 000 1 — 1 3 4
Ian Kendall, Hayden Miller (5), Max Gordon (6) and Brent Hegdahl; Chris Bradshaw, Matt Pittcairn (6), Jordan Frost (7) and Cory Pine. 2B—Ash: Miller, Gordon 2, Jake Scarminach. HR—Ash: Garrett Tygerson.
Today’s Schedule
Ashland vs. Roseburg Pepsi, noon
Ashland/Roseburg winner vs. North Medford, 4 p.m.
On Monday, the Roseburg Pepsi catcher picked up his biggest hit of the tournament, a two-run single in the eighth inning that lifted the Bottlecaps to an 11-8 victory over host North Coos, eliminating the Waterfront and advancing Roseburg to the tournament’s final day.
Roseburg plays Ashland at noon today for a shot at North Medford in the championship game at 4 p.m. Ashland beat North Medford 12-1 to stay alive Monday afternoon.
The Bottlecaps led nearly all the way against North Coos on Monday, taking a quick 3-0 lead and then going up 5-4 after the Waterfront scored four runs in the third inning.
North Coos rallied to tie the game at eight in the top of the eighth inning, but couldn’t maintain the momentum in the bottom of the inning.
Elliott Aurdahl, the Waterfront’s third pitcher, had gotten out of trouble in the seventh by entering the game with a runner on first and getting three straight outs. But he struggled with the strike zone in the eighth. With one out, he hit Reid Martin with a pitch and then walked both Cameron Newell and Tyler Bullock.
That brought up Ampi, who had eight hits, seven runs and five RBIs in the first three days of the tournament, as well as a double and single earlier in the game Monday. Ampi ripped a 1-1 pitch past diving North Coos third baseman Jesse McClintock to bring home both Martin and Newell. Micah Audiss followed with a single to center to score Bullock, but Ampi had done the big damage.
“I was thinking the bases were loaded and we had to get runs,” he said. “I just wanted to hit the ball hard and put the ball in play.”
Ironically, Ampi didn’t hit it where he wanted to, but it worked out just fine for the Bottlecaps.
“I got barrel,” he said, referring to hitting the ball solidly. “I was trying to hit the ball up the middle or to the right side.”
With the three-run lead in place heading into the ninth inning, Roseburg coach Richie Charles handed the ball to Ampi to close the game out, and he quickly retired three straight batters, striking out Ryan Campbell for the final out.
Campell, who had a big tournament for the Waterfront, had scored the tying run in the top of the eighth inning, when he led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice by Jesse McClintock, and came home on a single to right by Dalton Iveans.
But, as was too often the case Monday, North Coos wasn’t able to capitalize on what could have been a bigger inning or get a good bounce at a key time.
Bryce Weidman followed the single by Iveans by lining a ball to right field — a hit that normally would go for a double and bring home the run.
Instead, the ball took a big hop and bounced right off the fence to Roseburg’s Audiss, who was able to hold Weidman to a single and keep Iveans from scoring. After Jake Stevens walked, Nic Canaday hit a hard ball behind first base, but Roseburg’s Cameron Sterling gathered it in and stepped on the bag before Canaday could get down the line, ending the inning.
When the final out was recorded, Roseburg was able to celebrate its third straight win in an elimination game.
“It’s nerve-wracking,” Ampi said. “Every game can be your last, and we’re not ready to be done yet.”
After losing to Ashland on the opening day, Roseburg has beaten the Willoughby Sonics, Grants Pass Miners and North Coos.
“Our kids are doing a great job,” Charles said. “They know the task at hand.”
The Bottlecaps came out with a bang Monday.
Newell led off the first inning with a single and Bullock put down a sacrifice bunt that turned into a single when he beat the throw to first. Ampi followed with an RBI double to left and Bullock scored on an error on the play.
Audiss walked and Sterling put down a bunt, though Stevens made a nice play to get Ampi at third. After another walk, Dillon Westwang hit an RBI single to score Audiss.
North Coos bounced back to take its only lead of the game in the third inning.
With one out, Weidman walked and Stevens and Canaday hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. Sklyer Walton flared a single to right to score Weidman. Joe Harris followed with a grounder up the middle, which might have been a double play ball, except that Harris easily beat the throw to first after Walton was forced out at second. Stevens scored on the play. With Campbell at the plate, Harris broke for second and Canaday raced home on the back end of the double steal. When the throw home got away from Ampi, Harris took off for third, just beating the tag at that base. He then scored on a wild pitch, giving North Coos a 4-3 lead.
The advantage was short-lived. Sterling led off Roseburg’s half of the third with a triple over Campbell in center, and Josh Davis followed with an RBI single. Davis later scored the go-ahead run on an error with two outs.
Roseburg added a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth inning — with errors playing a major role in all three runs — to go up 8-4.
Meanwhile, Roseburg’s second pitcher, Jay Tovey, shut North Coos down for three straight innings, killing any momentum the Waterfront might have built with its four-run third inning.
North Coos finally got to Tovey in the seventh, though again a key bounce favored Roseburg.
Iveans, leading off the inning, hit a screamer at Martin at third base. The ball bounced off Martin’s foot directly to Blake Cupp at shortstop, and he was able to throw Iveans out.
That out became huge, because Weidman followed the play by lining a home run over the left-field wall. After Stevens walked, Canaday hit a ball over the trees beyond the fence in left — his second home run of the tournament and the sixth for North Coos in four games.
Ultimately, though, Roseburg was left celebrating and North Coos was left reminiscing on a good summer.
“It was a good season,” said Canaday, one of the team’s youngest players. “There was a lot of learning.”
“We had a great season — especially after we started off slow,” added Weidman, one of the team’s veterans, who likely will pitch for Three Rivers, the Class AAA sister team of North Coos, next summer.
North Coos was in the state tournament for the second straight year, and made it past the opening weekend this time.
“We were one game deeper in the tournament than last year,” said North Coos coach Brad Horning.
But after losing a heartbreaker to North Medford on Sunday, the Waterfront paid for a slow start Monday.
“We came out and didn’t start that good,” said Weidman. “They just kept scoring runs and we didn’t.”
Meanwhile, the four North Coos errors proved costly.
“I though they played pretty good defense against us,” Horning said. “They were a little cleaner than we were.”
Horning hoped that the nine-inning format used for the final two days of the tournament — after the games were played in the seven-inning format the first three days — would favor the Waterfront.
“I thought we were going to be the better team because we’re more offensive,” Horning said. “They countered it with their defense.”
The Bottlecaps were ecstatic to escape with the win.
“That North Coos team, we’ve struggled with them all year,” Ampi said. “They’re a good team, but we’re a good team, too.”
Though the season ended for the Waterfront,assistant coach Quintin Hall saw many positives in the summer.
“They’re good kids,”said Hall, who coaches at Marshfield, adding that the American Legion program is a big boost for both his squad and Horning’s NorthBend team, as well as other area schools.
“My three kids coming back (Aurdahl, Campbell and Van Pulliam) played a bunch. Now we start getting ready for next year.”
Ashland 12, North Medford 1
The Pilots handed the Mavericks their first loss of the tournament and advanced to the final day of the tournament with their seven-inning win.
Ashland built up a 12-0 lead with a powerful offense, and got a three-hitter by pitchers Ian Kendall, Hayden Miller and Max Gordon.
The Pilots also had a 17-hit attack on offense.
Gordon had two doubles and a single and scored two runs. Jake Scarminach and Nick Hall also had three hits and Garrett Tygerson homered for the second straight day and scored three runs. Ashland had five extra-base hits.
Medford got two hits from Hayden Wolfe and scored just a single run in the seventh inning.
The Mavericks still are in the driver’s seat for the tournament title, because they await the winner of the morning game between Ashland and Roseburg and will have a pitching staff that, in theory, will be more rested than the winner of the early game today.
Monday’s Linescores
Roseburg Pepsi 11, North Coos 8
North Coos 004 000 310 — 8 11 4
Roseburg 302 012 03x — 11 14 2
Kyle Davis, Jake Stevens (1), Elliott Aurdahl (7), Geoff Van Pulliam (8) and Dalton Iveans; Chris Case, Jay Tovey (4), Tyler Bullock (8), Vince Ampi (9) and Ampi, Eaton Sweeden (9). 2B—Ros: Ampi. 3B—Ros: Blayne Sterling. HR—NC: Bryce Weidman, Nic Canaday.
Ashland 12, North Medford 1
Ashland 210 063 0 — 12 17 1
North Medford 000 000 1 — 1 3 4
Ian Kendall, Hayden Miller (5), Max Gordon (6) and Brent Hegdahl; Chris Bradshaw, Matt Pittcairn (6), Jordan Frost (7) and Cory Pine. 2B—Ash: Miller, Gordon 2, Jake Scarminach. HR—Ash: Garrett Tygerson.
Today’s Schedule
Ashland vs. Roseburg Pepsi, noon
Ashland/Roseburg winner vs. North Medford, 4 p.m.
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