Coach is new, but high aim isn't

PREP WATCH: Cardinal softball banks on strong roster of underclassmen

By steve brandon

The Portland Tribune, Mar 20, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

L.E. BASKOW / P0RTLAND TRIBUNE

In Wilson’s 9-2 win over Cleveland on Thursday, Trojan Augie Rittenberg makes a tag and gets off a throw over Warrior David Lynch.

Lincoln has a new softball coach, but the Cardinals aren’t likely to do a lot of unfamiliar things. Odds are, they’ll just keep winning.

Coach Brynn Ludwig, who was playing for Concordia University at this time a year ago, has strong young players to go with some key returnees.

Megan Wasteney, the 2006 PIL pitcher of the year, is now a senior. Infielder Kylee Muir also is back, after making the all-league team last season as a freshman.

The youth movement includes frosh Endya Bailey at shortstop and Jenny Archambault behind the plate.

“Endya is extremely quick and a big offensive threat,” Ludwig says. “Jenny is a very good hitter and great defensive player.”

All but three players on the varsity are freshmen or sophomores.

Lincoln won the PIL last year with a 15-1 league record. The Cardinals have been in the state playoffs three years in a row.

Ludwig, 24, from Gig Harbor, Wash., played outfield at Concordia – when she wasn’t battling injuries. She missed one year with a torn rotator cuff. When she returned for her junior season, the left-handed batter broke her arm in the preseason when she was hit by a pitch.

“It hit me on the outside of the wrist, in the joint. It was the worst kind of break possible,” she says.

She came back to play as a senior and plans to be on a slow pitch team this summer.

“But I want to teach and coach,” she says, “and I got to see things from the sideline perspective a lot during the two years I was injured.”

Lincoln opened last week with a 12-2 win at West Linn and lost 2-1 at Beaverton. The Cards will play Central Catholic at 6:15 today and Grant at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, both at Delta Park.

“I’m really excited to have this bunch for the next few years,” Ludwig says. “They’re awesome. They’re everything you can’t coach – excited, aggressive, hardworking –they came with all the right tools. Now it’s my job to take them to a higher level.”

• PIL softball league play begins today. Grant has a strong pitcher in Bailey Reuck and should give Lincoln a run. Benson has only four seniors, and one of them, pitcher Megan Flink, hopes to return soon from mononucleosis.

• Round One in PIL 6A baseball is set for Wednesday, with Grant at Franklin and Lincoln at Benson.

Defending state champ Wilson is 2-1 in nonleague games. The Trojans opened with a 3-2 win over Central Catholic, behind Oregon State-bound pitcher Joey Mahalic, who gave up no hits and no runs and struck out eight while walking one in five innings –in front of 24 pro scouts. Wilson then beat Cleveland 9-2 before falling to Clackamas 8-1, ending a streak of 27 straight wins over two seasons.

The Trojans managed only two hits against the Cavs –a homer by Mahalic and a single by sophomore shortstop Bailey Graham, who went 2 for 3 with two RBIs against Central.

Graham’s twin brother, Brent, is the team’s new catcher. The Grahams reached the finals of the PIL 6A district wrestling meet at 140 pounds, with Brent winning the title by injury default.

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