Sports

NORTH BEND, Ore. — Freshman guard Lauryn Garrigus scored 19 points as the North Bend Bulldogs (16–3, 5–1 in 4A) defeated the Cottage Grove Lions (11–8, 3–5 in 4A) by a final score of 54–48 on Tuesday evening. 

It was not an earned win, not an easy task by any means, as the Bulldogs only held onto a four-point lead going into the halftime locker room. But a 16–8 scoring run in the third quarter, headlined by seven Garrigus points, helped North Bend hold on.

“[Garrigus] is awesome offensively and defensively,” North Bend head coach Doug Miles said. “We put so much pressure on her for a freshman. She’s pretty special, and she always does what she does.”

Senior Makya Alsup led the Lions in scoring with 20 points, and senior Mariah Bailey added 18 more to the total in a losing effort. Instead of looking at the negatives, Cottage Grove head coach Kim Beer saw the way his team played as a positive.

“North Bend’s a good team, they’re a ranked team,” Kim said. “…

NORTH BEND, Ore. — Sophomore guard Ryan Deloach finished with 18 points, including a half-court buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter, to lead the Cottage Grove Lions (5–14, 3–4 in 4A) to a 66–50 road win against the North Bend Bulldogs (5–14, 0–6 in 4A) on Tuesday evening.

Nine of Deloach’s points came in the third quarter, and the shot ignited the Lions. His performance on both sides of the ball helped Cottage Grove snap its three-game losing streak.

“You don’t see those a lot,” Cottage Grove head coach Seth Hutchison said. “But you take them, use them, and build on them into the fourth. We just viewed it as another shot and an opportunity to put us up three more, and then we got to go play eight more minutes.”

Lions’ junior Casey Pickle scored 15, while his teammate Cade May finished with 11, drilling a trio of 3-pointers. The pair, along with Deloach, all finished in double figures.

Junior guard Conner Johnson led North Bend in scoring with…

When Bushnell Beacons senior catcher Nate Stevens signed with the college baseball powerhouse Arkansas Razorbacks after his senior year of high school in 2019, he did not expect the whiplash six years he was about to have. 

The prime time spot with the Razorbacks didn’t work out, so Stevens turned his efforts to the middle of the United States at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS. He then battled through an eventual COVID-19 canceled season, but still notched an NJCCAA All-Academic Third Team nod. After another solid year at JCCC, he packed his bags and headed west for another shot at division one, this time with the Washington State Cougars. It still wasn’t the time, though, as he only appeared in nine games his sophomore year before redshirting as a junior. 

Another change was needed, and this time Stevens found his spot. He made the drive south to Eugene, OR, to play for the NAIA Bushnell Beacons. A knee surgery in 2024 piled on some bad…

SPRINGFIELD, ORE. — It was a sunny afternoon for Oregon as January baseball at Bushnell headed into Saturday’s doubleheader against Simpson during opening weekend for the Beacons. The Beacons and Red Hawks played a doubleheader on Friday, with a high-scoring first game that the Red Hawks took 16-14 after getting 12 runs in the first three innings. The Beacons took the victory in the second game, 7-6, tying the series 1-1 and then winning the series on Saturday, 3-1.

Game 1

The Beacons started off with right-handed pitcher Jacob Courtney and got a strike to start off the game with a groundout at first. Courtney then got two strikeouts to close out the top of the first, recovering from a three-ball count and getting three strikes in a row. 

With designated hitter Nate Stevens batting second for the Beacons, he got a double off the back fence and later stole third. Albert Jennings and Mason Millar got walked with Millar getting hit by a pitch to…

EUGENE, ORE. — The Bushnell Beacons opened their season with a doubleheader against the Simpson University Red Hawks (0-4), who traveled from Redding, California. The Eugene weather was surprisingly favorable for baseball, as clear days in January are a rare commodity in the Willamette Valley.

The Beacons come into the season as playoff hopefuls, ranked third in the preseason coaches poll for the Cascade Collegiate Conference.

Game 1 

Bushnell started lefty pitcher Austin Wolfe, a junior from Beverton, Ore. The RedHawks trotted out senior Gage Hoyle, who toes the rubber at 6-foot-2.

The Beacons got in trouble in the top of the first with runners on first and second and no outs. Wolfe then got Red Hawks slugger Cayden Lee to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. With two strikes on first baseman Owen Hayes, Bushnell thought they were out of it, but leadoff hitter Jackson Berry stole home when Wolfe looked away from the plate. It surprised the…

JUNCTION CITY, Ore. —  Kaden Schafer finished with 25 points as the Junction City Tigers (13–6) cruised to an 82–41 victory over the Cottage Grove Lions (4–14) at Craig Rothenberger Court on Friday night.

The combination of offensive execution, as well as full-court press defense for the majority of the game, proved to be a massive difference maker compared to the first time these two teams met earlier this month. A game that Cottage Grove won 49–47.

“I thought we started out with urgency on defense and got after it and tried to set the tempo,” Junction City head coach Bart Rothenberger said. “When you come out hard on defense, it helps the offense.”

Schafer, a senior forward, helped the Tigers pull away early with 16 first-half points. At 6-foot-3, he impacted the game on defense, in the paint, and from beyond the arc.

“He performed for us, and more importantly, he played hard on the defensive end,” Rothenberger said of Schafer. “You've got to remember…

EUGENE, ORE. — The sun shining, the smell of popcorn and hot dogs wafting through the air, and the cheer of the faithful fans at Jane Sanders Stadium. All that is just around the corner for the Oregon Ducks softball team. The team is poised and believes nothing can stop them. 

“We talked a lot about having an endless belief in all that we are going to do this year,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “Having an unbreakable connection and having no finish line.”

Oregon enters the 2026 season ranked as the No. 5 team in the preseason top 25. After last year's defeat at the Women’s College World Series, the Ducks have reloaded the roster. 

“We’re version eight, it's a different version, we celebrated version seven so much, and it was such an awesome ride,” Lombardi said. “But what I think is great is every version is so different, and you get to start from scratch and build upon it.”

The team is led by star right-handed pitcher Lyndsey Grein, who ranks…

It may have been a cloudy day at Jane Sanders Stadium on Thursday, but the sun is shining for the 60th season of Oregon softball. After losing six seniors who supported the team last year, Oregon has added three new freshmen and three transfer upperclassmen to its lineup. Heading into their tenth season at the Jane, head coach Melyssa Lombardi remarked positively on the team's culture. 

One of the most important things to Lombardi has been the connection displayed by her squad.

“I love the connection that they have to each other,” she said. “They demand excellence from each other.” 

Another attribute of the roster that Lombardi has a lot of faith in is their leadership, citing sophomore infielder Kaylynn Jones as one example, after leading the team in their last game of the postseason with a pair of hits. 

Lombardi also remarked on the strength of junior infielder Addison Amaral, a transfer from Notre Dame.

“Addi coming in as a transfer…

It was 37 degrees outside in Springfield on Tuesday night, but none of that mattered once the doors to the gym closed. The heat came from the hardwood, where first-place Thurston arrived riding momentum and unfinished business. The Colts entered the matchup at 12–4, unbeaten in Midwestern Conference play and winners of every game since Dec. 18, while Churchill stood at 7–6, sitting just behind them in the standings and bringing the biggest lineup Thurston had seen all season.

Thurston has been red-hot recently, fresh off a 75–25 road win at Mountain View and an 83–20 blowout of Springfield, powered by a trio responsible for nearly 70 percent of the team’s offense. Senior point guard Lukas LaBounty set the tone as the Colts’ engine, sophomore Trayson Hill continued to impress after earning a varsity role as a freshman and holding the school record for assists in a game, and Leofatu Filipe dominated the paint with the same physicality he brought to the football field. On the…

COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. — Keller Vinyard finished with 21 points, leading the Marshfield Pirates (9–7) to a 49–47 road win over the Cottage Grove Lions (4–13) on Tuesday night, despite a massive fourth-quarter scare.

The game looked over until it wasn’t, as Cottage Grove overcame a 20-4 deficit, headlined by seven first-quarter points from Vinyard, to start the game. The Lions crawled their way back by responding with a pair of 16-point quarters, and even got a chance at a game-winning 3-pointer at the hands of Tai Lam. 

But ultimately, the slow start wasn’t enough to scrape by.

“[We] just need a little more composure down the end,” Cottage Grove head coach Seth Hutchison said. “We didn’t really hit some sets towards the end. But hats off to my guys, they battled, but fell just short.”

Cade May led Cottage Grove in scoring with 14 points, and he just missed what would’ve been a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired. 

Max Ainsworth complemented…