Photo by Steve Wilkowske
Kurt Sommer of The Mosses tries to drive on Nick Walker of Team Next during action Saturday in the 3-on-3 Nothing But Net tournament.
By Sean Patterson
of the Herald
If you love basketball, you had to love being in
downtown Canby over the weekend.
The first installment of the Canby Rotary's Nothing But Net 3-on-3 basketball tournament -
featuring 59 teams from all over the region - went off without a hitch, giving organizers
reason to believe this is just the beginning of something big.
"Overall, I'm ecstatic with how smoothly things went," said tournament director
Tom Nolan, who anticipates an even larger turnout next summer. "We'll make a few
modifications and changes, but generally speaking we were happy with how it played out.
The games were outstanding, people all seemed to enjoy it and I know it'll only get bigger
and better."
The streets surrounding Wait Park were filled to capacity Saturday for the opening day of
competition and the nearby Cutsforth's Cruise In at Knight Elementary School.
On Sunday, division champions were crowned as the brackets narrowed (see accompanying list
for winners in each division). As a bonus, the weather cooperated, with overcast but
rainless skies Saturday and warm, sunny conditions the second day.
As if the games weren't enough, the event also hosted contests for three-point shooting,
free-throw shooting and dunking.
"It's just a great community event," said participant Beth Davies, who helped
her team win the women's division. "This just shows that Canby is growing and is an
ideal place for something like this. I love it."
Not surprisingly, the majority of entries were men's teams, which comprised just over half
the field. Organizers were disappointed with the relative lack of youth and women's teams,
but vowed to attract more in the future. "We'll do a better job of publicizing and
getting the word out," Nolan said.
"Being our first year, this was all new to us. But judging from what we've seen in
other communities who host 3-on-3s, the sky's the limit."
Jerry Moss, director of special events for the Portland Trail Blazers and a Canby
resident, said it was one of the best organized tournaments he's seen. "This was
quality, not only in terms of how it was run but in the fact every court had officials and
the equipment used was of outstanding quality," he said.
"You don't always see that at these tournaments. At those without officials, you tend
to have fights or incidents. That wasn't the case here." More on the future of the
tournament will be featured in Saturday's edition of the Herald.
Dramatic
rally keeps
season alive
By Sean Patterson
for the Herald
A dramatic seventh-inning rally Sunday kept
Canby's American Legion AAA season alive - at least for another day. Canby scored three
runs in the last of the seventh to earn a 12-11 victory over Barlow in the second game of
a best-of-three playoff series that concluded Monday night in Gresham.
The winner of Monday's rubber game advances to play either Marshall or Forest Grove in
another best-of-three that opens Tuesday.
"The guys never gave up, even when we fell behind 7-1," Canby head coach Marty
Hunter said of Sunday's comeback. "It was just one of those great games, back and
forth."
Host Canby, which lost Saturday's opener 7-2, came back from a six-run deficit to actually
take the lead, 9-7, Sunday at Canby High School.
Barlow answered with a grand slam in the sixth, though, to regain a two-run lead and set
up the dramatic finish.
Ross Crooks' drag-bunt single started the rally, and Josh Cushing and Brett Fuge kept it
going by slapping singles of their own to load the bases. The next batter, Nate Dawson,
looped a hit into right center to score one run, and a second came across on an errant
throw.
With runners on first and second, Canby successfully pulled off a double steal, and one
out later, won the game when Jess Driggers successfully executed a suicide squeeze bunt.
It was a seesaw game all afternoon, as both teams scored a run in the second before Barlow
broke things open with a six-run third. The visitors hit two home runs in the inning and
benefited from a walk and hit batter.
But Canby wasn't finished, picking up two runs in the third and four in the fourth to tie
it up again. Two more runs in the sixth put the hosts up 9-7 before Barlow answered with
its grand slam.
The key for Canby was the effectiveness of its first five hitters - Crooks, Cushing, Fuge,
Dawson and Marcos Quintero - who combined for 13 hits and 10 runs.
On the mound, Quintero got the win by getting the final three outs of the sixth and
pitching a scoreless seventh.
The day before, Canby mounted a two-run rally to tie it in the top of the sixth, but a
five-run Barlow outburst in the last of the inning spelled defeat.
Once again, Crooks started the rally with a walk and Cushing singled to put runners on the
corners. Dawson popped into foul territory, but it was enough to drive in a run. Canby
picked up its second run moments later with a successful double steal.
Unfortunately, Barlow made the most of three Canby errors in the bottom half of the inning
to pull away and make a winner of Corey Stone, who struck out 12 and allowed only three
hits.
Results of Monday's deciding game were not available at press time and will be featured
this Saturday.
CLASS A: In Legion A play this week, Canby is scheduled to play a three-game series with
Sherwood beginning Tuesday on the road. In the event of two home games Wednesday, there
will be a doubleheader, with games at 5 and 8 p.m.
Beko, Schuh lead way
at state finals
By Sean Patterson
of the Herald
The Canby Gators Swim Club added yet another chapter
to an already successful season when 13 swimmers made the long trek down the Oregon Coast
to compete at the Speedo Oregon Swimming 10-and-under State Championships in Coos Bay July
15-16.
Megan Schuh and Brandi Beko led the way for Canby, placing among the top finishers in
multiple events.
The meet, featuring over 300 swimmers from 40 different teams, was highly competitive.
Many of the events were decided by less than a body length, and Schuh and Beko figured
prominently in the events they swam.
Coach Eric Laitinen had quite a predicament when entering Schuh in the meet. She had
qualified for every event that an 8-year-old could swim, but he was limited to entering
her in a maximum of six individual events.
As it turned out, he entered her in the 100-yard individual medley, the 100 freestyle, the
50 free, the 50 breast, the 50 backstroke and the 25 butterfly.
Schuh made the best of it, finishing fourth in the 100 IM (1:33.67), fifth in the 100 free
(1:22.09), fifth in the 50 free (36.81), fifth in 25 fly (20.89), sixth in the 50 breast
(48.85), and sixth in the 50 back (43.39).
By meet's end, she took home medals in every individual event she swam and set best times
in four of her six races.
Beko also fared well at the meet. She too swam six individual events and set personal-best
times in three of them. Her high placement for the weekend was fifth in the 50 butterfly,
in which she dropped 1.5 seconds to finish at 46.13.
She also finished seventh in the 25 fly and ninth in the 100 IM, dropping nearly seven
seconds in the latter.
Also swimming well were Amy Burnham, who dropped time in all three of her events,
including nearly five seconds in the 100 breast to finish in the 10th spot.
Meanwhile, Jenni Dole dropped 5.5 seconds for a time of 37.36 and a sixth-place finish in
the 50 backstroke, and Spencer Polack set a personal best in getting ninth in his 100
butterfly race.
Shauna Cooper, Nathan Krettler, Tyson Polack, Luke Welle, and Kelsey Priest also swam in
individual events.
In relay action, the Boys 8-and-under team of Polack, Krettler, Welle and Andrew Blackman
took home fifth-place honors in the 100 medley relay and sixth in the 100 freestyle event.
Also, the girls team of Dole, Hannah Garcia, Cooper, and Burnham placed seventh in the 200
freestyle relay and eighth in the 200 medley. Also swimming two relays in the meet was the
team of Schuh, Beko, Priest and Ashley Saucedo.
One member of the Gators was unable to participate in the meet. Brandan Mantei, who had
qualified in every available event like Schuh, was sidelined by a foot injury two weeks
before and was unable to compete.
Out of the 40 teams at the meet, Canby finished 15th. The meet was won by Tualatin Hills
Swim Club.
Huskies,
Tigard go to final
game in best-of-3 Legion
playoff series
North Marion, the top seed out of the Area 7
district, met Tigard Monday night for the right to advance in the American Legion AAA
baseball playoffs.
The two teams split over the weekend and met Monday in Aurora to decide who would claim
the best-of-three series.
In the first game Saturday, North Marion's Kory Casto was nearly unhittable as he gave up
only three hits and struck out 10 en route to a 1-0 shutout of the Lobos, the No. 4 seed
out of Area 6.
The Huskies' lone run came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Tucker Brack hit an RBI
single, scoring Kyle Castor from third base.
"Kory was Kory," North Marion coach Randy Brack said. "This is what we have
come to expect from him - excellent pitching."
The story was not the same in Game 2 at Tigard on Sunday. The Lobos exploded for 15 runs
on 15 hits as Tigard routed North Marion 15-3. After the Huskies took an early 1-0 lead,
the Lobos exploded for seven runs and sent 12 men to the plate in the bottom of the second
inning to go up 7-1.
They never looked back after that.
"They (Tigard) swing the bat well," Brack said. "They played well
defensively, too. They are a pretty good team."
Results of Monday's deciding game were not available when the Herald went to press. They
will be featured this Saturday.
The winner of Monday's game began another three-game series Tuesday.
The winner of this week's series will play a seeding game for the state tournament.
