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May 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 25, 2004 Grizz depth, timely stoppage lead to victory By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings The Grizzlies' offensive depth, along with a timely stoppage of play, helped the Ashland High baseball team stay undefeated Wednesday. Ashland High sophomore John Goldberg slides safely into third base Wednesday at the Ashland High junior varsity baseball field. Goldberg went 3-for-3 with two doubles and an RBI as the Grizzlies picked up their third straight win, 8-6, over Sunset. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Sophomore John Goldberg went 3-for-3 with two doubles and No. 9 hitter Jeff Skinner added a triple and two RBIs, as the Grizzlies exploded for five runs in the fourth inning in an 8-6, five-inning win over Sunset at the AHS junior varsity field. The game was called after Aaron SanNicolas walked the first four Sunset batters in the top of the sixth inning to make it 8-7. That run and the rest of the sixth inning was wiped out when the umpires ruled it was too dark to continue. The game began an hour after its 3 p.m. scheduled start because the previous game between Summit and Hillsboro didn't finish until about 3:40. Ashland improved to 2-0 in the Ashland High School Baseball Tournament and 3-0 overall. It plays its final AHS tourney game at 2 p.m. today against Summit at North Mountain Park. "I'm just glad the game's over," Ashland coach Jason Robustelli said. "Now we'll get down to our home field where the hops are a little truer and ground balls are welcome. [The junior varsity field] isn't the best place to play." Junior lefty Josh McDermott started on the mound for the Grizzlies and allowed one earned run after walking three batters in the second inning. Senior Brian Ross took McDermott's place at the start of the third and was credited with the win after 2 2/3 innings of work. SanNicolas got the only batter he officially faced, John Hext, to pop up with a runner on base in the fifth. Senior Corey Faltyn started for Sunset and allowed eight hits, three walks and seven earned runs before being replaced by junior Calvin Davis with one out in the fourth. Davis retired the five Grizzlies he faced in order. Skinner's clutch hit in the second inning got things started for the Grizzlies and proved to be the difference. With two outs and runners on first and second, the big right fielder crushed Faltyn's first-pitch fastball to deep left-center. The standup triple allowed Ashland to leapfrog Sunset and take a 2-1 lead. "We have a lot of good hitters and it doesn't matter where we put them because they're all going to make clutch hits," Skinner said. Grizzly senior first baseman Chad Hegdahl, who finished 2-for-3 with two doubles and three RBIs, drove in another run in the second before Sunset scored two of its own in the third to tie the game at 3. In the Grizzly fourth, senior Ben Dodds, senior Jackson Rowe, Hegdahl and Goldberg each drove home runs to help Ashland blow the game open. Dodds and Rowe each ripped RBI singles with one out, while Hegdahl yanked a two-RBI double down the first-base line and Goldberg belted an run-scoring double to right-center. "Yeah, I was seeing the ball well," Goldberg said. "I was doing what my coach told me to do, just look for the low pitch and drive it and that's what I did. (Faltyn) pitched to me fast ball, fast ball and that's what I like." The Grizzlies' hard-hitting performance continued a trend which has spelled doom for opposing pitchers. Ashland now has scored 25 runs in 17 innings, notching 23 hits in the process. Goldberg says the best is yet to come. "Our bats looked great again today and I think it's going to stay that way," he said. "I think the key is Chad Hegdahl. He really is the solid point of this team and once he gets going � everyone will fall into place after that." The Grizzly defense also continued its solid play. Despite playing on a bumpy field that produced several bad hops, Ashland committed just one error - an overthrow by junior catcher Steve Jorgensen on an attempted pickoff. The infield included most of the same faces from the previous game, but rearranged. Micah Weston, who pitched Tuesday, played shortstop, Rocky Reeser was at third, Dodds anchored second and Hegdahl played first. Reeser was stumped by an awful bounce and Weston trapped a line drive before throwing the batter out. Besides that, the Grizzlies' infield again made all the routine plays and is starting to look like one of the team's strengths. Pitching was another matter, but one that Robustelli said will work itself out with time. "I thought all of our guys were having trouble with the zone," he said. "They were just having a rough time out there trying to find it. We have a lot of guys who can throw, but we just have to figure out what they can do for us. "We're just still trying to figure out what we've got to do to win games." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams