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AHS kicks of conference baseball season By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings He can live with his defense. He's pleased with his starting pitching. He thinks his offense will be able to score. But Ashland High varsity baseball coach Jason Robustelli isn't quite as comfortable with that other aspect, the one that can't be taught or measured until the time comes for it to be unleashed. It's killer instinct, and Robustelli says how much of it the Grizzlies have will go a long way toward determining how far they can go in the Southern Oregon Conference. Ashland High pitcher James Page will probably see plenty of action this season on the mound, where Ashland pitchers hope to force opposing batters into easy groundouts. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA "We're right where we should be," Robustelli said Thursday, two days before Ashland's SOC-opening doubleheader at Klamath Union. "We're hitting the ball like we should be right now. As far as what's going to show up on Saturday, you never know, but these guys get up for the games, they focus. It takes another team to show up for these guys to focus in. "I think the biggest thing these guys gotta learn how to do, which comes with their inexperience - I don't know if they can finish a game. I'm not saying they can't, but they haven't proven it yet. Late in a game, what's going to happen? Are we going to lose focus or are we going to stay mentally focused for the remainder of the game?" That would have been a silly question just 10 months ago, but times have changed in Grizzly country. Ashland's nose for the jugular was dead-on over the previous two seasons, during which the Grizzlies won consecutive SOC crowns and advanced to the Class 4A state playoffs. But virtually every Grizzly who played a significant role on those teams - eight of nine starters, to be exact - graduated last June, leaving Ashland bigfoot shoes to fill with untested feet. Aiming to do the filling will be returners Chad Hegdahl (junior pitcher), Bryan Clevenger (senior shortstop) and Chase Cook (senior right fielder). Other starters Saturday will be junior center fielder Arron Nelson, senior left fielder Elliot Stone, junior second baseman Ben Dodds and junior catcher Brian Ross. Robustelli said either junior Jackson Rowe or senior Chris Presicci will play third and either senior Zach Miedecke or Rowe will play first, depending on who's pitching. So far, the transition has been relatively smooth. Fielding a team made up entirely of juniors (6) and seniors (7), the Grizzlies (3-1) won their first three preseason games by a combined score of 33-7, before finally dropping an 8-3 contest to Crescent Valley last Friday. In the wins the Grizzlies looked remarkably like they did last year, but without the power. They made all the routine plays on defense, laid down bunts, executed and got strong pitching from their starters (Hegdahl and senior James Page) en route to easy victories. But in the loss, Ashland showed a tendency to make mental gaffes in bunches. Robustelli says that six-error performance was either an anomaly or a sign of things to come, but he won't know which until his team faces that kind of pressure again. "I think they play the ball, they play ground balls, they play fly balls very well," Robustelli said. "They play the mental game for the first five innings very well, then I don't know. We've only had one game where we had a breakdown, but it's a trend in my mind that has happened in practice. "It's just a matter of getting some games under their belt. These kids don't know how to gauge themselves yet. They don't know what they're really getting into." At least most of them don't. But Clevenger, who played center field on last season's state quarterfinal team, says the Grizzlies don't need to worry about the competition. If Ashland can just do what it does best, Clevenger said, everything will be fine. "I think more so in baseball than in any other sport, we just need to focus on playing our game," said Clevenger, who quarterbacked the AHS football team and played point guard for the boys basketball team. "It doesn't really matter who we're playing. You don't really have a game plan so much that you're going to prepare differently for each team, you just kind of go out and try to do the same thing your way each game. And I think our strength in that area would be we're going to play error-free baseball. I have 100 percent confidence in our pitchers that they're going to throw ground balls, so we need to play clean and we need to execute on offense." Hegdahl agreed. "We're ready," he said. "I think our main goal is to make the routine plays on defense, because if we do that, our hitting's there. We don't have much power, so base hit, get a couple runs, then we'll hold them off and win some games." LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -