4 Games To Go

My journey last night took me to Sheldon, South Eugene, North Eugene (thinking maybe Sheldon or South were going to play at Swede) then home.  I started getting scores texted from a parent at the Thurston game and she finally asked me if I was at PK.  No. Oh, well, at least I was warm and dry.

Humongous 6A upsets in round of 32

I don't consider a 5 seed beating a 4 seed an upset, but I definitely put the upset label on an 8 seed beating a 1, like  Century did when they beat Lake Oswego 1-0.  Century was ranked #38 in the RPI with an 8-15 record verus the Lakers #3 RPI and 21-4 record.

There will be at least two 6A teams advancing to the quarterfinals who were ranked in the bottom half of the RPI.  #22 Oregon City plays #34 McNary and #25 Sprague plays #27 Beaverton.  There's even a chance that #38 Century  gets to the quarters.  Century plays either a 14 or 19 seed.

Coaches can already file this year's playoff results in their speech file.  What if a coach has a team with a poor record after regular season?  No biggie.  Pull out the 2012 bracket and  wave it in the air,  "I remember back in oh-twelve, when eight and fifteen Century upset those rich kids from Lake Oswego, 1-0, in the first round of the playoffs......"

Should the athletic directors fix this????

Last week I mentioned that if both Thurston and South Eugene won in the first round that they would then meet in the round of 16.  That's a little dorkus to me to have  two teams from the same league meet so quickly in the playoffs.  Well, guess  what?  Sheldon is playing league rival Redmond in the second round.  And the four teams from the 6A Special District 1 that made the bracket are all on the same side of the bracket, meaning that only one of the four teams can make it to the state championship game.

Willamette's Play-in Win

There was a big crowd, full of both Willamette and Crescent Valley fans, at the Willamette play-in game last Friday.  Add in the sunshine and what a great day for baseball.  The win is a big deal for the Wolverines.  They haven't been to the round of 16 very often.  I have most of the playoff results going back a long time, and I show Willamette's last trip to the round of 16 being in 1978.  (Cottage Grove also made it to the round of 16 in 1978.  The Grovers made it to the finals before falling to West Linn.)  Willamette fell to Madison 8-6.   The last time my records show the Wolverines getting to the quarters is 1974, when they lost to eventual runner-up Crater.


In the third inning of Friday's play-in game, it looked like a few minor bobbles were going to be the end of the Wolverines.  The kinds of  plays that never make the papers but advance the runner a base, or eliminate a potential force out... those kinds of things.  Crescent Valley took a 2-0 lead and fans had to wonder if Willamette was going to regain  a steady hand.

Did they ever.  Left fielder Jalen Drath made a diving catch with a man on, shortstop Scott Kuvaas pulled off the old 'deep in the hole, jump and throw' move for an out, and Gold Glover Glover (Tevin Glover) non chalantly handled several scorchers in critical situations.

Pitcher Trent Waggoner hopefully handed out thanks after the game. Trent did a good job himself, scattering four hits, striking out five and walking just one.

Lancer's out...

I had a tough choice whether to go to the Lancer or Wolverine game. I suppose I would have enjoyed the close score of the Churchill game, but I wasn't ready for Churchill's season to end.  Some folks who had been at the Churchill game came over to Willamette for the last couple of innings and word quickly spread.  When I heard the Lancer game ended on a  Dezarn shot to shortstop, I said, "Oh, no."  And then I remembered that most of the games I went to until the last few weeks, Jake's blistering blasts were finding the gaps or 'out uh here'.  But the last couple of games he had still been tagging them, but right to fielders.

Next year...

The Lancer's graduate 9 seniors.  That's a big deal to some programs, but coach Hoberg has always brought up players who fill in for the graduates.

Marist finished the season 7-16.  The Spartans lose three seniors. Marist seems to be in good shape pitching wise next year.  They'll likely be building their staff around seniors to be Malik Evans and Grant Jamieson.  I'm expecting a big jump from Marist next year.  They have the potential of returning 4 seniors to be and six juniors.  We all saw them improve dramatically during the season and the Spartans should get a lot better with some summer ball.

Springfield closed out the year at 3-18.  They'll graduate one senior and they had NO juniors on the final varsity roster.  They had nine sophs and four frosh on their roster.  Expect a big improvement from these guys, too.

Round of 16

Baseball is brutal on playoff teams.  Five of the top 12 6A teams, based on RPI, are out after the first round.  Let's hope some of our local teams make it to next week because the long range forecast is for warm clear skies next Tuesday.

6A

Sunset at Thurston.  I really liked Thurston's chances of getting through the first two games of bracket play until I heard about the sprained ankle attached to Kyle Watson's leg.  I still think the Colts can do it, even with Watty's gimpy wheel.  Thurston's defense has been very consistent this year whether Watty is pitching or not.  And the Colt bats have delivered in most games.  Anything can happen in baseball, but I'm leaning towards a Colt victory over Sunset.

Sheldon at Redmond.  Redmond is on a seven game win streak that includes three shutouts.  One of those shutouts was  a 2-0 win at Irishtown. It's a good time to get hot.  Redmond did have a mid season defensive slump where the best they could do was to give up  just 8 runs in a seven game stretch.  Who knows in this one??

5A

Corvallis (18-9) at North Eugene (17-10)

Corvallis is on a five game win streak including an impressive 10-3 play-in win over Mountain View.  North will likely go with Toby Woods.  Corvallis is very stingy on defense, so expect a low scoring game.  Too close to call.

Putnam (18-9) at Willamette (14-9)

Putnam finished second in their league at 16-5. Three of those losses were to number four ranked Sherwood.   I think it's going to take another stellar defensive game by Willamette to get by Putnam.

Wednesday is that day during the playoffs when the vast majority of teams are throwing their number two pitcher.  There is a wide disparity among teams at the number two spot.  Some two's are aces, some are sad sacks and the team better be able to hit.  We'll find out soon.

Go MWL