Photo by Keith Stewart
Amy Orris eyes a pitch last Wednesday evening in Bethany. Orris had two solid at-bats to bring in a couple of the Timberwolves’ runs.

Solid defensive outing goes the duration

March 25, 2015

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Okaw Valley’s bats were hot to start, but their gloves were warm all evening long last Wednesday when the Lady Timberwolves opened the season at home with a 7-3 win over Paris.
The strong supporting cast was behind pitcher Amanda McClain for all seven innings, committing just one error that helped lead to one of the Tigers three runs. As for McClain, going the distance included two earned runs, six hits, five strikeouts, and four walks. Perhaps her most impressive stat was the 135 pitches she threw, all of which from the first to the last, made the glove of catcher Natalie Jeffers shed dust.
“I think she’s an experienced pitcher who will definitely battle, battle, battle,” said OV head coach Dave Benning. “What I saw late in the game is that she started to rely too much on her arm, kind of getting out of rhythm and losing her stride, but she definitely pitched well today considering not getting a whole lot of reps in preseason being a two-sport athlete. I was very pleased with her effort. We certainly don’t want Amanda throwing much more over a 100 pitches, and the same would go for Maddie Perrine or even Grace Harlin,” noted Benning. “We need to be more efficient. Not work deep into the counts.”
OV got the scoring started in their half of the first after McClain led off with a single to shallow center field. McClain would steal second  and then be brought home on Amy Orris’ double to the left field wall. Read More

Hagerman tallies 14 strikeouts in win

March 25, 2015

By Matt Kracht
NP Sports Reporter

Two area aces faced off Wednesday in Bethany, and the results were a predictably low scoring affair that batters on both sides would like to forget.
Peyton Hagerman threw seven innings of one hit one run ball for the Timberwolves while striking out 14 batters in a virtually unhittable performance.  Okaw Valley’s head coach Andrew Hagerman was upbeat after the win by the character shown by his team.
“This win shows that we are a veteran team with a lot of character,” said Hagerman. “We had two starters from last year get sick at school today, so we were short two players, and we still manned up and made it happen.” Read More

March 18, 2015

The Sullivan Future Redskins basketball league concluded earlier this month with the championship game. Team "Michigan" came away with the win over team "Purdue".

Submitted
Future Redskins League Champs
Pictured is the first place team “Michigan”, who won the Future Redskins Youth Basketball league championship earlier this month. Pictured, front row, from left to right: Bria Tuttle, JJ Standerfer, Noah Hartman, and Dakota Freese. Middle row: Elijah Fenton, Matt Welch, Ethan Brinkman, Drew Rogers, and Savanna Braden. Back row: coaches Brett Tuttle, Nick Frerichs, and Jake Piper.

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March 4, 2015

A&M’s perimeter shooting proves problematic for Timberwolves
By Matthew Kracht
NP Sports Reporter

The Timberwolves came up just short in the second round of the ISHA Class 1A regional falling to Central A&M despite a 26 point performance by senior Devin Still.
Okaw Valley erased an 11 point second half deficit tying the game at 60-60 with two minutes remaining. However, the Raiders were able to hold on and advance, ending a gritty Timberwolves squad’s season.
After the game head coach Tony Sparks addressed his team’s calling card.
“Effort has been one of the signatures of this team all year long,” he said. “To lose a top scorer and leader going into the tournament, the team responded great. They just kept battling and never backed down. That is what we did all year. One thing this team did was play hard, and that is the one thing you want out of your team.”
Senior TJ Pieszchalski was the only Okaw Valley player with an offensive rhythm in the first half. Pieszchalsi, who finished with 10 points, scored eight of the first 19 for the Timberwolves and kept the team afloat. Coach Sparks was quick to compliment his player who has really grown down the stretch.
“TJ has been a good player for us for four years, and he’s played really well for us these last four or five weeks. He is another senior realizing that it was getting down to the end. So we have seen his effort go through the roof the last few weeks just playing harder and smarter.” Read More

February 25, 2015

Will take on host A&M Wednesday evening

By Matthew Kracht
NP Sports Reporter

While the Timberwolves lost one of their best players for the rest of the season on Tuesday in Peyton Hagerman, fans found a star for the future that same night in Dylan Park.
Park, a junior, put 20 points on the Windsor Blue Devils making four spot-up 3s and setting the tone scoring the game’s first six points.
“Dylan shot the ball well,” said head coach Tony Sparks. “He has been our second best shooter all year. They came out and ran some box-and-1 stuff on Devon Still, which left Dylan wide open in the corner, and he took advantage.”
The Timberwolves led 8-0 when Joe Jeffers knocked down a base line jumper at the five minute mark. Windsor quickly battled back to within two at 10-8. Out of a timeout Park hit his third three in the first four minutes of the contest sparking a 10-2 run with Drew Fruchtl adding a key trey leaving the score at 20-10 with 25 seconds left in the first quarter. Windsor nailed its first of two buzzer-beaters from NBA range to close the period with the score 20-13. Read More