Document text
69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Biz Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 23, 2005 North Medford�s Logan Odom, left, slides into second base past South Medford�s Ryan Odell during their game earlier this year. Odom, a sophomore, ranks fourth in RBIs (17) for the Black Tornado. Odell, a junior, is hitting .333 for the Panthers heading i Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli SOC squads face stiff tests in openers North, South square off today against two of the Metro League’s best baseball teams By KRIS HENRY Mail Tribune North Medford coach Brett Wolfe doesn’t know much about the Aloha baseball team, but he knows enough. "I know they were ranked No. 1 for something like half the year and won their first 13 games," says Wolfe. "That’s all you really need right there." Wolfe’s Black Tornado opens the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs against the Warriors at 4 p.m. today in the second playoff game ever at North Medford High. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Coincidentally, the other game was also played on May 23 (in 1996) when Miles Field was deemed unplayable due to wet conditions. The Tornado beat Corvallis 4-0 in that game behind the pitching of senior left-hander Bryan Bealer. With ninth-ranked North (20-6) expected to start senior southpaw Josh Suarez, Wolfe couldn’t help but make a connection between then and now. Advertisement "We’re hoping to put that same score on the board," he says with a laugh. "We’ll take that for sure." That said, Wolfe knows all too well that No. 8-ranked Aloha (20-6) will be seeking to re-write history, not repeat it. "They’re coming out of that Metro League, which is a very, very good league," he says of the Warriors, a No. 3 seed. "To me that’s probably the best conference top to bottom in the state at this time. All four of those (Metro) teams are going to give people some problems." In today’s other state-playoff openers featuring Southern Oregon Conference teams, South Medford is at Southridge, Grants Pass is at Redmond and Roseburg is at home against Forest Grove. Aloha is led by senior infielder/pitcher Mitchell Bivens. The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder ranks second in Metro League hitting with a .494 batting average, 31 runs scored and a .556 on-base percentage. Ryan Koffel, a 6-4, 175-pound senior, is the team’s top pitcher, averaging more than one strikeout per inning. Mathew Morrison, a 5-8 senior, leads the Metro with a 0.93 ERA. Pitching and defense have been staples to Aloha’s success thus far, allowing a high of seven runs only once in a 7-2 loss at fifth-ranked Westview. The Warriors have reached double figures in runs scored on seven occasions. For North Medford, which tied South for second in the SOC but earned the No. 2 seed by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker, Wolfe says consistency will be the key if his team is to have success today. "We’ve been playing inconsistent all year," says Wolfe. "We’ll play really, really well and then we have a tendency to have an inning or two slip in with a mental lapse or two." Wolfe says North has made adjustments in practice to shore up assignments and believes the Tornado has resolved those issues just in time. "Hopefully we’ll have our better games in front of us now," says the 11th-year coach. "This is where you want to have them anyway." Suarez will take a 9-0 record and 1.03 ERA into today’s game, with 94 strikeouts and 18 walks in 672/3 innings. Backing him up will be fellow left- hander Cole Rohrbough, who is 7-4 with a 2.24 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 652/3 innings. "Our pitching is strong with those two," says Wolfe. "I feel like we can compete every time out with those guys. Either one can do the job for us." Offensively, junior first baseman Abe Eubank leads the way for North with a .468 batting average, six home runs and 31 RBIs. Zack James is hitting .382 with 23 RBIs, while Bruhns is hitting .358 and Suarez .354 with three homers. SOUTH MEDFORD AT SOUTHRIDGE — In another matchup between the Metro and the SOC, South Medford continues what essentially has been a season-long road trip in this 4 p.m. tilt. With the razing of Miles Field, the Panthers (19-7) lost their home facility prior to the season and have spent the year calling North Medford High "home." While the circumstances weren’t optimal, South coach Steve Antich says his team has appreciated the use of North’s ballpark and hopes to get some mileage from the Panthers’ lack of dependence on a home-field advantage. "We’re just excited for the opportunity to go play some more baseball," says Antich. "Our kids don’t really care where they play." Southridge (18-7), the Metro’s No. 2 seed, enters the playoffs having won nine of its last 11 games, including a 3-0 win over league-champion Westview in the regular-season finale. On the mound, the Skyhawks feature senior Andy Eiden, who was a first-team all-Metro pick last season, and junior Chance Howard, who ranks second in the league this year with a 0.95 ERA. Senior infielder Jordan Post is the team’s top threat at the plate. South counters with junior pitchers Kenny Licea (4-2, 1.83 ERA) and Tommy George (4-3, 4.16) and freshman Griff Boyd (5-0, 0.29), while Jared Adamson and Marcus James each lead the team with a .412 batting average. Adamson also boasts a team-high 25 RBIs, with Logan Boyd batting .338 with 24 RBIs and six homers and Dan Chancler hitting .381 with 20 RBIs and 29 runs. GRANTS PASS AT REDMOND — In the biggest head-scratcher of the playoffs, Grants Pass travels to play Intermountain champion Redmond today at 4:30 p.m. The playoff scenario for the SOC’s No. 4 seed originally had that team playing at the Valley League’s No. 2 seed (West Salem) but, according to GP coach Stacy Morgan, that scenario was switched this past Wednesday. Now, the Mount Hood Conference’s No. 3 seed (Barlow) will play at West Salem, instead of Redmond as previously scheduled, and the Cavemen will make the jaunt to Redmond. While Morgan says he’s still not totally clear on why the switch was made, one could assume that since the SOC is the only conference in which its No. 4 seed didn’t have to play a subtournament game, it was only natural for the OSAA to have that team face a No. 1 seed in its prearranged grouping instead of a No. 2. "It doesn’t make a lot of sense," Morgan says of the late change. "We had prepared to play West Salem and had people scout them, and now we’re playing Redmond. But I guess you’ve got to play them all to get to the end anyway." The seventh-ranked Panthers (17-4) enter today’s game having won 10 of their last 11, and are 9-1 at home. They feature 6-5 lefty Enoch Deaton, who Morgan dubs a "cross between (North’s Cole) Rohrbough and (Roseburg’s Blake) Keitzman." GP plans to counter with steady right-hander Ben Murray. FOREST GROVE AT ROSEBURG — Third-ranked Roseburg (21-5) is about as hot as a team can get and with Blake Keitzman on the mound the Indians have practically been unbeatable but for a loss two weeks ago to South. The Indians, who garnered their first SOC title in six years, face off against a Forest Grove team that finished third in the Pac-9 with a 15-11 overall record. The Vikings are led by senior shortstop/pitcher Eric Renander, who is hitting .368 and boasts a stingy 0.88 ERA. Junior Giovanni Carrera ranks second in the Pac-9 with 61 strikeouts. Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Auto Insurance Mesothelioma Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Payday Loans Advertisement s