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--> --> May 14: Grizz baseball team ties for first By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings So Torrance George, you and your teammates have just won the Southern Oregon Conference for the second straight year. Does it feel good? "Yup." George had the key hit in Game 1 and no key hit was necessary in Game 2, as the calm, cool and collected Grizzlies swept Eagle Point 4-3 and 21-8 Saturday at North Mountain Park to clinch a tie with North Medford for first place in the final SOC standings. The co-champs will play a tie-breaker Tuesday at North Mountain Park to determine who will go the Class 4A state playoffs as the SOC's No. 1 seed and who will go No. 2. "Last year was the first time in our conference, this time, it's good," Ashland coach Doug Stover said. "These guys really deserve it. They worked hard. They've worked hard since February and they deserve it. A game here and there and we wouldn't have been co-champions, but we could have lost a couple games too. "This is strange, you talk about professional baseball and they play 162 games. We play seven days. I mean, if you look at our season, which starts in February, we really only played seven days, and that's all that matters and it's intense. It's nothing like any other baseball conference around. Seven days of baseball doubleheaders and this is how it ends up." The 10th-ranked Grizzlies ended up 11-3 in league play, 17-6 overall, while the Eagles fell to 1-13 in the SOC. North Medford swept Crater 7-6 and 16-0 to also finish 11-3 in the SOC. Eagle Point didn't go down easy in the opener. The Grizzlies needed a bases-loaded single by George in the eighth to finally bring an end to the Eagles' Game 1 comeback bid. Eagle Point scored two in the first and one in the third, while Ashland scored one in the first and two in the second, then left the bases loaded in the seventh. Nick Danis led off the Grizzlies' eighth with a double, then Tim Hegdahl was intentionally walked and Ryan Decker reached on an error to load the bases. George then ripped a long single to left and that was that. Game 2 was all Ashland, as the Grizzlies scored seven in the second and 10 in the fourth to win going away. They were so far ahead heading into the fifth that Stover was able to get Decker some action on the mound. Decker allowed four runs on two hits and three walks, though the first run was credited to Kyle Puderbaugh, who gave up a single to start the inning. Senior first baseman Bill Rowe led the Grizz onslaught, going 3-for-3 with a home run and four RBIs. Senior Mike Allen, who pitched the opener and improved to 7-3, added three doubles and three RBIs. Senior third baseman and team captain Titus Weston contributed two more doubles. The Grizzlies finished with 18 hits in Game 2 and 27 on the day. Afterward, the Grizzlies compared last year's conference title with this one. "Actually, it's a little sweeter (this year), I think," said Allen, who struck out eight in the opener. "We did get the co-champs this year, so it's not quite as nice, but the second year in a row is really sweet. We had to work a lot harder last year, but there was so much pressure at the beginning of the year and all through the year this year. "It was a lot tougher and it was a lot different, and we overcame a lot of adversity." Weston said Ashland's experience in last year's state playoffs - the Grizzlies lost in the first round 4-0 to Gresham - will help the Grizzlies this time around. "I think it's going to be crucial," Weston said. "Almost everybody here was at the game or on the team ... We've all been there before, and then in the summer we went for (American Legion) to Portland to the playoffs up there, and the more experience you get in that type of environment the better you're going to be. We have a bunch of seniors who I think will do fine. We know what it takes to win and I think we'll go out and do it." AHS Softball At Eagle Point, the Grizzlies split a doubleheader with Eagle Point to end the season 6-8 in the Southern Oregon Conference, 14-12 overall. Ashland took the opener 8-1, but couldn't score in a 2-0 Game 2 loss. Despite high hopes early on, the Grizzlies ended up in sixth place in the SOC, two games behind Grants Pass (8-6 SOC) for the fourth and final playoff spot. Junior pitcher Megan Beugli went 2-for-4 with a two-run triple in the opener, and was also the winning pitcher. She struck out five, walked one and allowed just three hits in the complete-gave victory. The Eagles scored all the runs they would need in the second inning of Game 2, as starting pitcher Jessica Jeeninga shut out the Grizzlies on five hits. Email your... 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