There were great stories this year about our three seeds... Springfield not having won an outright MWL title since the 70's.... Thurston losing ten all leaguers to graduation and taking the second seed... and North Eugene losing two of their four returning all leaguers, losing another penciled in started via transfer, and a mid season injury to one of their aces. All three head coaches had quite a challenge. All three made the state quarterfinals. But it was Coach Nicholsen who climbed the mountain by getting his players to play incredible D early in the season and then adding in the bats during the playoffs.
North Eugene gave up just four runs total in five playoff games. In games that counted this year - league and playoff games - the Highlanders allowed just 1.6 runs per game. Out of 20 league and playoff games, North held opponents to 0 or 1 run 13 times! Kyle DeHaven and Andrew Moore both return next year. They had a combined league record of 9-4 with 98 combined K's and 24 combined walks.
North's late season offensive explosion was good to see, although not really needed during the playoffs because of the great D. Coach Nicholsen and I have different theories about how North got their bats going. Nicholsen says everything changed when they had a late season night hitting practice. He changed up their hitting routine a little and the kids started smacking the ball during the night practice and it transferred over to the games. My theory is that the kids saw North Medford lay 19 blistering hits on North Eugene at Swede and the Highlanders started thinking, "So, that's how it's done."
My memory of the state championship game will be that the Highlanders never quit, even though they were given plenty of reasons to fold. They were facing a pitcher who reaches the 90's and had signed with Oregon State and was picked in the 5th round of the MLB draft, so they needed to make the most of every scoring opportunity. But North leaves two on in the third, leaves the bases loaded in the fourth, leaves the bases loaded again in the fifth, all the while keeping Volcano Stadium spectators from overheating by fanning 13 times. But North just kept putting pressure on until the Grizzlies couldn't catch all of the salmon on base and scratched out three runs in the sixth. Then all the Highlanders had to do was shut down the top of the order for two innings. No pressure. It was a great day.
All league thoughts. I saw a lot of ball this year, and I think the all league selections were very good this year. Coach of the Year almost always goes to the winning coach, but I could have argued for a three way split with Lansdon, Dube, and Nicholsen. Hats off to all three for managing the players heads in a year that a lot of teenagers would have fallen apart. The Millers had to overcome the image of Springfield not being a good program, much less a championship program. The Colts had to find a pitcher (Found 3 - Dawson Phinney, Tyler Johnson and Kyle Watson) and overcome the loss of all of those all leaguers from a state championship team. I've already pointed out North's possible pitfalls. MVP. Normally, the MWL has several players who were excelling on the mound, in the field and at the plate. But this year, Kameron Bates was about the only one to play that triple role. Certainly Andrew Moore looks like an MVP after his pitching performance in the state playoffs, but the league vote was taken before the playoffs. Peanut Havens had to be considered with his .440 batting average and leadership from behind the plate. Freshman. Wow, two freshmen made first team and one made second. It was a joy to watch Scott Kuvass play short for Willamette. His frosh teammate Cole Urioste pounded the ball at a .349 clip. Finally, Thurston's Kyle Watson picked up two victories against no losses with a sub 2.00 ERA and showed clutch hitting at the plate.
Next Year: Bye-bye Colts and hello Spartans. I stated in my blogs last spring and winter that I was really pumped for the 2010 baseball season because I thought at least four teams had a shot at the title and maybe five, plus it just seemed like the caliber of baseball had improved a lot throughout the league. I'm just as pumped for next year, but for far different reasons:
- Thurston and North Eugene would have been the clear favorites next year. Thurston returns five all leaguers. North Eugene returns six if you count Shawn Boehm, who was injured this year after an all league year in 2009. So, without considering Marist until I learn more about them, Thurston's move to 6A puts North in the driver's seat. How will the returning players handle the high expectations? Will they be overconfident? Will they tighten up? How will Coach Nicholsen manage the players' heads?
- Marist joining the league. We're all curious how Marist will compete at the 5A level in all sports. They'll do just fine is my guess.
- The development of the Willamette program. The Wolverines are looking good with four returning all leaguers and a new domed stadium. I was talking to Jeff McKay of Baseball Northwest late in the season and he said hitting in Oregon was way behind Washington. One of the main reasons was a lack of adequate indoor facilities. Well, Willamette has solved that.
- A lot of pressure will be on Springfield. They return the league MVP, Kameron Bates, along with Blaine Dudley and Ryan Helfrich - all excellent with the stick. Frosh pitcher Malik Evans (4-0) returns, but will need to improve his K to BB ratio. But what is there after those four? We'll find out if Coach Lansdon has developed a program or if 2010 was a once every 40 years phenomenom.
- Churchill will be replacing a ton of players due to graduation. The Lancers got on a roll way too late - winning their last four league games, finally looking like the Lancers of recent years. Coach Hoberg will hope to copy what Thurston did this year after the Colts lost most of their 2009 team.
- I'm even looking forward to improved play by my Marshfield Pirates, who only had four seniors this year and had several sophs and frosh. They need to develop several pitchers. As usual for the Pirates, a lot will depend on how many kids play summer ball.
- The Man Cave at a field I won't mention. Baseball diehards all, and they'll be back.
Next Year's College Players: Today's Register-Guard reported that Dawson Phinney and Jordan VanEngers have committed to LCC. Please let me know if you know of any others who have committed to a college baseball program. I believe Sam Kiesse is headed off to George Fox and I've heard and forgotten about many others. If you know of any other commitments, please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com. Also, if you can update me on kids who are playing college ball this year (2010) please let me know. Here's what I have so far for 2010.
Photos - All photos should be 50 cents for 4x6's unless I didn't get the pricing change made. I sold photos to just three people this year. Hopefully, that will pick up next year to make it worth my time of working with thousands of pics. Here's a link to the main photo page. Click in the '2010' column.
That's about it for this year. I'll post the all state list when it becomes available. Thanks to all those who texted scores and other information this year - the Moore's, Bates, Dew's, Kiesse's, Mill's, Watson's and the coaches. I'm sure I missed several fans who helped out. This was the first year that I had scores posted for almost all games by 9:00 on game nights. A special thank you to Rich Lari. Rich emailed the great recaps of the North Eugene games. Rich goes into the parent reporter Hall of Fame along with Tony Schauermann, a Thurston parent. Rich and Tony are closet sports writers.
