Mount Hood

Western marks 16th straight appearance in GNAC playoff

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

With the GNAC Baseball playoffs quickly approaching, four more in-season games were played on April 28-29. The Wolves secured a playoff spot after splitting the first two games against the Central Washington Wildcats, 14-6 and 5-3. Both teams, having already clinched a playoff seed, continued to jockey for GNAC tournament positioning, but it was the Wolves that defeated the Wildcats two more times: 8-5 and 4-3, with the latter score coming off a walk-off home run.

The hits came and plenty of contribution was divided among the Wolves roster in their first win against the Wildcats. Six players hit more than once in the 14-6 route.

Outfielder Griffey Halle, first-year, was the first on the attack as he put it past the fences for the first two runs of the second inning. Senior Jacob Martinez, outfielder, also provided contribution, running in three that helped add to a 8-1 lead in the fourth inning.

The Wolves ran up the score from then on and the ‘Cats could not make up ground.

Sophomore pitcher Alex Roth earned his fifth win in his five strikeout performance and has not lost a game throwing.

Unable to follow up on the hitting performance, Western had only one player, senior infielder Jay Leverett, hit twice in the rematch. The game was knotted, 3-3, by the sixth, but Central — having led the GNAC in total plate appearances — had just a few more at bats and base runners to earn the victory.

Central kept the appearances on home plate and bases in tact for game three. The Wolves planned to do the same. In the fourth, they ran eight players on bases to bring the game within one, 3-2. Both teams played through the pouring rain and, after a rain stoppage of 48 minutes, the Wolves came back.

Three infield throwing errors in a row from Washington produced three straight runs for a 7-5 Wolf lead. In the seventh, the Wolves scored one more after an unearned Martinez run in from third base.

One more game was played between the two. After having already hit two walks offs for wins within the last 16 days, first-year outfielder Spencer Bennion made sure his third would come again when it was needed in the extra eighth inning. With two outs and the score at 3-3, Bennion hit the ball clear over right center field for the final decider.

The Wolves will face the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks for their final four in two doubleheaders. Each doubleheader is set for 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. times.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Barber’s propelled by his pursuits

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Numerous passions have kept junior Bernard Barber determined. In football, rugby, his major in business and his dream of firefighting, Barber contains a love for those things he’s committed to.

The way Barber sees it, a love for what he does tells him he’ll never have to work a day in his life — something his mother instilled in him since childhood.

A desire has always been there for him: football became his first love, growing up 10 minutes from the beach in west Long Beach, California. The game drove him up through his Lakewood High School days, to joining Western Oregon’s football team in his first year attending, to flag football and, now, rugby.

Not stopping at the football return or the rugby drop: ambition, fervor and will positioned Barber to excel in multiple sports. He’s thrown himself into the net of all that Western Oregon’s club and intramural sports offer.

This term, he’s signed up to play in intramurals for softball and volleyball, and soon will be involved in basketball.

In a day’s work, once these obligations are met with his teammates on the field or on the court, and after much time has been spent expelling efforts to the many demands from those sports he’s in, Barber will drive up to Keizer to work in his managerial position at Sonic.

“There’s different personalities, customers you have to deal with, but it’s taught me how to prioritize, and different obligations” said Barber. Prioritizing and keeping the right balance in anything, in general, is another lesson his mother raised him with.

Barber said sometimes he knows he’ll have to miss practice because of a work schedule, but it’s something he says he’s learned to manage.  

Understanding the different obligations of the various sports and activities he’s in, Barber has found not only the right leverage, but success even with some of the constraints.

He was a part of Western’s all-star intramural flag football team that competed in the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association championship in January 2018.

But football, the friendships he inherited with it and the family bond that’s been created has also had a strong influence to his willingness to be involved in many campus sports.

“The first thing I did when I came here was sign up for football, but I didn’t know anybody,” Barber noted. So, he built connections, like rugby teammate Chris Davis, who urged him to play rugby his first year. Since then, Barber’s started in every rugby game he’s played in.

“Ever since then, I’ve met people who I now call my brothers. It would be weird if I go a day without seeing them,” said Barber.

His competitiveness and work ethic may have been ignited at the age of six, after first experiencing the workings of his grandfather’s fire station and the engine he worked on during weekend visits. Looking back on the experience now, Barber mentions that his grandfather’s coworkers, “the ones that were on the same engine as him, say to me he really took a passion for what he did, and I’ve always looked up to him, as I have several pictures of us being at the fire station.”

Barber says becoming a fireman has been a dream since being around the fire station a number of times as a child: “I will never forget it, and at the time you’re just amazed at what’s around you …  But after studying up and going to seminars, I know that this is 100 percent what I want to do.”

If there was ever an urgent demand for firefighting, Barber realizes that time is now.

“I feel comfortable knowing the steps to become a fireman, I know what to do after I graduate, I know classes I need to take, I know the physical shape I need to be in,” he explained.

From the summer until late fall of 2017, California experienced some of the worst wildfire hazards on record.

According to the LA Times, the ten most destructive wildfires in California history have all occurred between September and December. Barber saw what happened in his home state and, after hearing from friends who live around the San Bernardino area and of the effect the recent fires have had on them, Barber has felt a calling to help communities in need.

But Barber’s relieved he’s one year away from graduating, and how soon he will get his chance to pursue a firefighting dream with efforts to aid. He’s hoping to attend fire school after graduation.

After college, he also plans to have a business career to fall back on. While he’s working on his degree, he’s narrowed his focus to marketing.

Barber commented, “I’d like to own my own business. I’ve always been a good people-person and business is something I can always fall back on. My mom is the CEO of her business and so that’s a big reason why I’m in pursuit of that.”

Through the sports he’s involved in, degrees he’s focused on and embellishments of multiple activities, the work he’s putting in now can only move Barber forward in pursuit of his ultimate dreams and aspirations.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

 

Women’s soccer goes 3-0 against Owls

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Soccer season may not begin until the early fall, but a few round robins in the spring will keep Wolf feet running. Western’s soccer team hosted the Oregon Tech Owls on April 21 in a game that resulted in a shutout, 3-0.

Intended as a round robin of three teams, Warner Pacific College was unable to make it, but the Oregon Tech Owls rose to the occasion.

Western scored early off first-year forward Alyssa Tomassini’s goal. For most of the first 30 minutes, Western’s defense put a barrier on the Owls that they could not get through. Most of where the ball rolled in the game was on Oregon Tech’s defensive end with Western on the offensive attack.

With a little over 30 minutes remaining in the game, the Wolves’s many open field chances finally led to their third goal off a breakaway in transition. Junior midfielder Dacia Alexander had a one-on-one opportunity with the goal keeper and was able to chip shot it over the defender.

While the game was just an exhibition, a few of Western’s soccer players contested that it had the same intensity as an in-season game.

Alexander commented that it was a “good feel-it-out game,” and wanted to match the intensity of a seasonal game. The defense attested for it as the Owls could not get by the Wolves’s staunch front.

“It was good to get into the swing of things,” said first-year defender Brynn Kubo.

Western will play another round robin on April 28 against Peninsula College and the Seattle Stars — a soccer club. The start from midfield begins at noon.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: Simson Garcia

Wolves quiet ‘Jackets’s buzz, stung in rematch

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The clock’s winding down on the softball season and the race for the GNAC championships. The Wolves looked to four pivotal home games from April 21-22 against Montana State-Billings to stay in postseason conversation. The first game started them out right, defeating the Yellowjackets, 5-2.

They had the help of their premier hitters on the year to nudge them ahead of the Yellowjackets in game one. Second in runs scored in the conference, and first-year right fielder Tyler Creach turned home after a steal to second to start Western’s scoring. Tied for first in the GNAC in doubles, junior outfielder Cheyenne Rimer had another to score in, team home run leader and senior outfielder, Zoe Clark.

The sixth inning came and so did the load up on bases for scores. Junior infielder Ryanne Huffman batted in first-year infielder Sydney Bowers for the game clincher.

The series and score flipped, as the Yellowjackets took game two, 5-2. Montana was bolstered by their own power hitters. Two solo-homers did the damage including one by Montana State-Billings’s pitcher Megan Dettling.

A second doubleheader on April 22 saw Montana and Western even. The ‘Jackets returned again to their batting ways in game one, led by current GNAC home run leader and infielder Cameron Cassinelli who homered in the first run. Montana-State sought to take a commanding series lead up 5-3 going into the seventh inning, but the Wolves made their run.

A solo-homer by sophomore left fielder Ayanna Arceneaux brought them within one. Then, with the bases loaded and after a Creach run to tie, infield sophomore Chandler Bishop hit a walk-off single to win it.

Montana State came back stinging, however, in the final game for the 12-8 victory. Five home runs were smashed out of the park, including a big, grand-slam homer by Dettling in the second inning. The Yellowjackets continued their momentum scoring three more runs to go up 9-0 in the same period.

Western made a significant return as Clark, Huffman, Creach and company scored runs to pull them closer late in the innings but the visiting team created too much cushion between them.

As it’s been all season, the remaining games played by any of Western’s conference foes can shape the playoff picture as one team’s already clinched.

“We have to make sure we take care of ourselves and let the other teams fall where they may,” said Bishop.

They have four remaining games on the season-all played at home-to make up ground.

The four games will be played on April 28-29 with the first doubleheader against Simon Fraser. First pitch is at noon.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Baseball records 26 hits, demolishes Saints 22-4 for sweep

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Twelve straight runs by Western’s baseball team provided the starting point for the four game sweep against St. Martin’s from April 21-22. The runs created enough separation from St. Martin’s, as the visiting team went down, 12-4 in game one.

The first game set the tone for the rest of the series as scores by first-year left fielder Griffey Halle and senior infielder Jay Leverett would come again in later games. Sophomore first baseman Connor McCord hit a three-shot homer to close game one.

Western’s fielding suffocated the Saints so they could not make much of a difference in base running through seven innings. Seven strikeouts were earned by sophomore pitcher Alex Roth for his fourth win. Roth has not lost a game in his pitching campaign.

The Wolves almost faltered in the first inning of game two in part to a two-shot from Saints’s first baseman Adam Eskil that ran in right fielder Austin Feist. Ground was eventually made up by senior center fielder Cody Dykstra’s two run-in’s. McCord and Halle returned to home plate to retake command at 5-2. The duo of Eskil and Feist returned to tie the scoreboard at 5-5 but it was Wolves senior pinch hitter Spencer Bennion’s game saving walk-off single passed the left infield that prevailed.

Western turned the table completely in game three with 22 runs by the Wolves — the most since they recorded 23 against San Francisco State in 2004. A nine-run fourth inning was part of 17 runs, up until that point. Twenty-six hits tied a team-record and the team hit and scored in every way possible and from every player available. A double, triple, homer, a hit-by-pitch — even a balk by a St. Martin’s pitcher — provided the win. In all, 13 different players on the roster scored.

Almost letting game four go and down 6-1 in the third, the home team kept their composure and stopped the Saints from adding to their score.

In the fifth inning, Halle’s 2-RBI double tied it, and scored himself afterwards off of Dykstra’s double.

Senior outfielder Jacob Martinez’s single in to Dykstra put a cap on the series.

Now, at 19-12 in the GNAC, the team’s run of four straight has come at a turning point in the season. Just ahead of them, and atop the conference, is Montana State-Billings, who recently have won six straight. Four games were forfeited versus Montana earlier in the season because of location difficulties and could mean the difference in seeding for the playoffs.

Western continues a six game home stand starting with Lewis & Clark State college on April 25. They hit the diamond at 2 p.m.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Rugby contends for pacific coast championship

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The rugby ruck continued for the women’s rugby season, but ended on April 14, as the team pushed on to another trench match with Cal-State Monterey Bay. Despite the 15-5 defeat, the Wolves gave a copious amount of effort to where a few breakaway runs could have declared them divisional champions and an advancement into the next round of the small college rugby organizational tournament.

Senior lock Madison Fagnani spoke proudly of her team’s performance, “For some, it was only their second official rugby game, and they played their heart out. We communicated and trusted each other and played rugby. Our fullback, Brooke Kaylor, made some game-saving tackles.” Fellow leader of the team and forward Sabra Duarte also acknowledged the performance.

“Everyone went out and gave it their all for the whole 80 minutes. We seemed to keep up our energy pretty well throughout the whole game.”
The Wolves have had an eventful season in the lead up to the match. Their record stood at 7-3 and, in a season that’s spanned since early fall, they became battle tested having faced off with competitors such as Willamette University and division I school Eastern Washington. They derailed Willamette three times on the season, including a route of 48-5 on March 10, and got the best of Eastern Washington, 27-7, a week after on March 17. Both Eastern and Willamette were the two lone teams to defeat Western.
The wins were also part of a larger five game win streak that included two other blow out wins of 78-5, and 49-0.

“Our main goal is to get girls to fall in love with rugby,” commented Fagnani. “Rugby teaches you so much more than just how to play. It teaches you (both on and off the field) sportsmanship, respect, and camaraderie. Our goal was to build a family and we did it.”

Their next opponent, Cal-State, were ever the formidable opponent. The game was an uphill climb for both teams to start as either team hardly got passed midfield. But a breakaway try put the Golden Eagles on the board first.
Both teams neared to the goal line several times in the second half. Western created initial ground in the half off Fagnani’s returned kick for a big gain, but Cal-State’s defense in the scrums and rucks prevented them from reaching closer many times over.
Finally, with 15 minutes left, Western broke through Cal-State’s rucks for their only try in the game.  

After the game, Fagnani and Duarte applauded the teams play; “It was an awesome opportunity getting to play in California,” said Duarte, “It’s always exciting to see us hold our own against schools that are bigger than us and get more experience throughout the year.”

“Each one of us did something amazing on the field,” expressed Fagnani, “and the best part is that we are a rookie team (mainly beginner players). The fact that there are only minor issues to work on is amazing and that speaks loudly on our coaching staff Emily Applegate, Marissa Minato, and Sammi Williams. We will only get better from here.”

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: Simson Garcia

MVP Corner: Lillard Time

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The NBA’s 2017-2018 season will be one to remember. James Harden and LeBron James have played up to MVP standards and, while both are heavily favored for the award, Damian Lillard’s breakout year should also be worth consideration. He’s had an MVP type year, no doubt, and here are a few unique reasons why.
Let’s break away from the obvious as Lillard’s helped the Portland Trail Blazers surpass expectations by sporting records better than San Antonio and Oklahoma City, teams with multiple stars. He’s upped his game in shooting, passing and even defense apparatuses this year. Without him, Portland certainly wouldn’t be where they are now. But MVP caliber seasons have something that sticks out from the rest.
Last year, 42 triple doubles, the most ever in a season, helped award Russell Westbrook the MVP. Lillard certainly has a few things up his sleeve this year, too, that puts him in MVPn conversations among NBA pundits. Known in his career for clutch performances during crunch time, the numbers tell it this year and should help place him in consideration for the award.
Down to the wire is where it counts — it’s what fans remember. Everybody remembers MJ and Kobe’s clutch moments. This season showed that Lillard is better than both Harden and James by a mile when the game’s in the balance. In one of the most clutch situations — the free-throw line — Lillard has followed through making 33-36. This was when the game was under five minutes left while neither team was ahead by more than five points, according to NBA Miner.
If stretched a few feet further out to three-point, he’s still better than Harden and James when one considers this interesting stat: Lillard improves his three-point percentage in clutch situations by .385. James drops by .045. Harden declines by .067. In fact, both drop off drastically in free-throw percentages as well.
When one remembers remarkable MVP-like seasons with wire-to-wire finishes — and Lillard’s had many — they’ll remember his time. That’s now.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: oregonlive.com

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