Sports

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…

While the results didn’t favor in the direction of the No. 14-ranked Cottage Grove Lions girls basketball team (9-6) on Friday, the future is bright for the program. Freshmen on varsity basketball squads are rare, but the Grove has two, and one of them is lighting up the scoresheet despite the 67-50 loss to the No. 4 Marist Catholic Spartans (10-3).

Madison Stuhlmiller, the freshman in question, was the star of the show for the Lions on Friday. She had 10 points, good for third-best on the team.

“The one freshman that starts, she’s got a great future,” Lions head coach Kim Beer said. “She’s getting all of this playing time, and she plays most of the minutes of every game. She has some spurts that are really excellent. The thing that freshmen usually go through, if they have a bad stretch, they have a tendency of getting down on themselves for a while. You have to straighten them out. Everybody makes mistakes.”

The Lions entered this game coming off a home 45-42…

A bowling ball in the form of Trevor Cooper, forward for the No. 23 Cottage Grove Lions (4-12), was let loose in the first quarter of their rivalry matchup against the No. 4 Marist Catholic Spartans (10-3). Cooper dropped 15 points in the period, using his massive frame to bump his opponents out of the way like they’re pins at the alley and grind out layups. Late in the quarter, Cooper missed a layup, got his own board, stayed patient and skied in the air for the tough finish that capped off a fine quarter for the Lions. 

Unfortunately, Cooper would leave the game with an injury in the third quarter, and Cottage Grove would fall 48-41.

“One, we didn’t rebound as good as we should have on the offensive side,” Lions head coach Seth Hutchison said. “You hate to look at injuries, but losing your best player in the second half and playing without them, you know. I’m pretty proud of these guys for just competing, playing their tails off against a really good, well-…

Bushnell women’s basketball entered Thursday’s game against Warner Pacific University trying to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Beacons opened the game with a layup from Maddie Gerhart and stayed aggressive early, as Ayden Krupke scored six points in the first quarter. Bushnell controlled possession throughout the opening period, but Warner Pacific led 13-6 and held a 17-15 lead at the end of the quarter.

Warner Pacific responded by starting off the second quarter with a layup by KJ Custer and quickly found momentum with five 3-pointers, with Shielteal Watah scoring three 3-pointers for the Knights in the quarter.

Bushnell struggled offensively, committing four turnovers and scoring only seven points, while Warner Pacific put up 24 points to take a 39-24 lead into halftime.

Things started looking up for the Beacons as they started the second half, scoring four points off the bat, leading with an aggressive start and continuously getting rebounds as…

EUGENE, ORE. — The Bushnell Beacons men's basketball team (9-9) faced off against the Warner Pacific Knights (5-13) on Thursday evening. The Beacons came in trying to defend their home, Dave Lipp Court at the Morse Center, riding a one-game win streak. The Knights came in trying to snap a seven-game losing streak. This was the final game between these teams and a rematch of the Dec. 6 game that saw the Beacons win 86-76.

After letting up an early 3, the Beacons responded with a Squeeky Johnson triple of their own. The action continued back and forth with an aggressive offense by both teams. After an early media timeout, the Beacons were leading 13-11 just over three minutes into the game.

The first half continued to be scrappy as the refs were not afraid to blow their whistles at contact. The fast game continued with each team getting points, but the Beacons were out-…