CORBETT ENDS SEASON FOR LOGGER TEAMS

Both Knappa's baseball and softball teams had their seasons come to an end at the hands of the Corbett Cardinals Wednesday.

The Logger boys saw an early 10-2 lead disintegrate as the Cardinals collected 17 hits in a 16-12 victory in the loser out round of the Northwest League baseball playoffs. The Corbett softball team scored eight unanswered runs to pull away from Knappa for a 6-inning, 13-3 victory at Knappa.

Both Cardinals teams clinched state tournament berths with their victories, before falling to Nestucca and Gaston respectively in seeding games later in the day.

The Logger boys rapped out 15 hits against Corbett and lit up ace pitcher Kevin Greenslade early on. Greenslade left the mound in the third inning and Knappa greeted reliever Andrew Haines with four straight hits to go up 10-2.

With an opportunity to end the game early, Knappa put runners at second and third with one out in the fifth inning, but was unable to score. Then things turned around 180 degrees.

"It turned into a hitfest," said Knappa head coach Jeff Miller. "Their bats woke up and everything that touched a bat ended up a bloop hit or a shot."

Loggers starting pitcher Gary Aho, who threw 60 pitches on Monday in a win over Corbett, began to tire. Six Knappa errors did not help their vulnerable pitching staff.

"You only have so many bullets in the gun," said Miller. "Those errors you give up outs and you are using up bullets. He finally hit a wall."

Aho gave way to Karac Anderson in the fifth, but the junior righthander was unable to stop the bleeding. The Cardinals took the lead with a 6-run fifth inning, going up 11-10, adding a run in the sixth and four more off sophomore Cody Strickland in the seventh inning.

Knappa had one last rally, with a 2-run home run by Strickland in the seventh inning, but fell short, as their season ended with a 14-10 overall record.

"We really had no business getting this far," said Miller, who loses just one senior, rightfielder Elias Hunsinger. "The kids produced a lot more than we anticipated."

Anderson went 3-for-5 on the day and Cody Strickland was also 3-for-5 at the plate. Joe Strickland was 2-for-5 with a double and four runs batted in and Nate West drove in four runs with a pair of hits.

Aho took the loss, and his final day at bat finished with two hits and two walks in five plate appearances. The Logger junior finished the season with some of the most impressive offensive marks in the history of Clatsop County high school baseball, with a batting average of .646 with 10 home runs, 45 runs scored and 46 runs batted in. Aho also led the team in stolen bases, had six outfield assists in which runners were thrown out at the plate and ended up with a total of 51 hits in 24 games, with at least one base hit in all but one game and two or more in all but a couple.

"He literally carried this team on his shoulders," said Miller. "And he is without question the hardest working player on this team, the unquestioned leader."

The Loggers will return a strong offensive nucleus and will look to develop pitching depth this summer. One bright spot is the emergence of freshman Cody Strickland, who batted .500 with three home runs all coming toward the end of the season. The Loggers will enter the summer junior state season with a strong offensive core at the top of the order, with Aho, Joe and Cody Strickland, Anderson and Maury Dugan all batting over .300 for the spring.

"We'll be competitive for sure," said Miller. "I'll be disappointed if we're not more than competitive."

Knappa's softball team also played above expectations, but fell one game short of qualifying for the state tournament, losing big to Corbett twice this week to end the season.

Knappa scored first, with a two-out rally capped by Kate Shear's RBI single to score Danielle Donayri. Corbett answered in the bottom half of the first with back-to-back doubles followed by back-to-back errors to plate three runs.

The Lady Loggers loaded the bases with nobody down in the second inning, but scored only one run on a Kelsy Patterson single, scoring Cassie West, who led off with a double. Chelsea Cameron hit a line drive just foul that would have scored two or more before popping out for the first out. The Cardinals made an out at home before a sharp grounder up the middle by Taryn Hirahara was handled by the pitcher for the final out.

Corbett scored three in the fourth inning, then blew the game open in the fifth and sixth with three big hits and some aggressive baserunning compounded by four Knappa errors.

"Corbett was an experienced senior team that really came on at the end of the season," said Knappa head coach Jerry Deford. "They just played good, hard, agressive sfotball both Monday and tonight. We had our chances to really get into the game and open it up, but we couldn't get the big hit."

Knappa closes out the season with a winning record of 14-10, a nine game improvement over last year with a squad comprised entirely of underclassmen.

"I wish we could have pulled this one out," said Deford. "The girls worked hard all year and it would have been nice for them to make the state playoffs. They will all be back next year so I hope we can build on this year and learn from it."