PLEASANT HILL – Tuesday, April 29, was a typical spring day, with crisp, blue skies and the Pleasant Hill Billies taking on Sisters in a league softball game. The Billies entered the contest 3-10 and the Outlaws were 2-14. Not much was on the line.
Actually, it felt like everything was on the line.
The game would turn out to be an unofficial memorial celebration for Jami Strinz, a longtime local volleyball coach who died in a bus crash on April 18.
A moment of silence was observed, flowers laid on home base, and a balloon release filled the sky just as players’ emotions rode a pregame roller-coaster.
It’s been a rebuilding season for the Billies under new coach Nicki Derrick, leading a varsity roster half-filled with freshmen.
None of that mattered on Tuesday though, as most of the players had a personal connection to Strinz through club teams, fall league, and her time as an assistant coach at Pleasant Hill.
Everything culminated that day when players channeled their grief into a heart-pounding performance and rallied to a dramatic 18-17 walk-off victory against the Outlaws. The Billies had trailed 16-5 in the top of the sixth inning.
A breakthrough moment
“Strinz gave them something to play for,” Derrick said. “But all the fundamentals finally came together, too. These girls have been about one hit, one fielding play away all season. And finally, they just put it together and realized, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go take that win.’ They wanted it, and I could see it in their eyes.
“And I wholeheartedly know that we had a guardian angel, and it just gave these girls so much confidence. Now, we’re turning the calendar, and we’re heading into May, and I’m just so proud of these girls and the resiliency of the tough April that we took – losing games, losing Jami, a lot of emotions, and all the growing that we’re going through. This was just the stamp we needed to turn the second half of the season around.”
Pleasant Hill is still reeling from the news of a fatal head-on car collision claiming Strinz and 19-year-old Umpqua softball player Kiley Jones on Friday, April 18. The two were traveling on the bus back home with their entire team after a doubleheader in Coos Bay. Many of the players were critically injured. Strinz had recently taken the position of Umpqua Community College’s first head softball coach when the program opened this season under the Northwest Athletic Conference.
This is the second car collision death that has struck the Pleasant Hill athletic community within the past few months. On Dec. 7, junior quarterback Steven Bounds, along with five others, suffered a two-car collision that claimed the life of his 13-year-old brother, Easton Bounds. Easton played on the Pleasant Hill Middle School football team. Steven suffered major injuries.
Strinz and the Easton were among the thousands killed each year by car crashes. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, there has been a significant rise in car accident fatalities in the past decade in Oregon. According to a National Transportation Research Nonprofit, “from 2013-23, Oregon’s number of traffic fatalities increased by 88%, and its fatality rate increased by 70%.”
Strinz was instrumental in developing the Pleasant Hill softball program by unifying the community, introducing the Shamrocks club softball team, and the Pleasant Hill fall team, residents said.
Jonathan Carlton, father of freshman softball player Stella Carlton, recalls his experience with Strinz and her role in Pleasant Hill softball development. He mentioned how before her, the club options for softball families weren’t accessible and convenient for Pleasant Hill residents.
Strinz
“Coaching my kids is how I met Jami. My kids were in Kidsports with softball at the time,” he said, noting that driving to Eugene was a challenge for parents. Carlton said, “Jami brought all the Kidsports members together – the players, the parents, the parent coaches, and the families – and unified everybody to join her club team. She also created a fall team – a Pleasant Hill fall team – where they played against other club teams, but it was just the girls from Pleasant Hill.
“She set up a lot of clinics and camps for softball that my girls went to. She also set up coaching clinics to help the assistant coaches, because we were just, like, parents. She was very open with her knowledge. The handbook that she gave us was very detailed and useful. At the time, I appreciated that because a lot of times, coaches can kind of keep their secrets and be competitive.”
Impact on players
Freshman Reagan Dockery and sophomore Acadia Bloxham were among the group of younger classes to receive this training from Strinz. They both said that their time with her was deeply impactful.
“I would not be where I am without them,” Dockery said. “Back then, I just played Kidsports and played softball when I could. (Strinz’s club) saw potential in some of us girls who weren’t anything special. They brought us in and we joined their club. Also, the fall team helped us get better before the high school season. They believed in every one of us, even if we were behind where some other kids were at that age.”
“Jami meant a lot to me,” Bloxham said. “Her and her husband Steve were super supportive people. They have always wanted the best for me and my sister since last year, when they coached in high school. They’re really good people.”
Strinz’s partner, Steve Williams, was the head coach for the past two seasons at PHHS. Strinz served as an assistant coach. Many players on the team are familiar with the two as a “coaching pair.” Along with Williams, Strinz also leaves a 16-year-old daughter, Sari Strinz, who played shortstop for the Billies last season.
“I think every coach has something to offer, and for her, she kind of brought the ‘softball is life mentality,’” Carlton said. “Where it’s like, ‘We’re in this to play hard, be competitive, and get to the next level.’”
“She was a softball guru,” said Derrick, who had only begun developing a relationship with her recently for the summer league programs.
Learning hard lessons
After being down 16-5 at the top of the sixth inning on April 29, according to Carlton, the umpire looked over at Derrick and said, ‘You have to score 10 runs, or else it’s game over.’ Derrick knew that the team was not only struggling with a slow start, but most of all, a deep sense of pressure. She called the team over for a huddle.
“With this young group, they put a lot of pressure on themselves,” she said later. “So when we came into the dugout, I had one phrase that I ensured they repeated to me, ‘Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what you’re doing. We don’t feel pressure because we know what we’re doing.’ And I just knew, after that talk, we were down at that moment, and we had to walk it off to win that game, or tie it to stay in it. The way they reacted to that phrase, they knew exactly whose game it was to win and who they’re playing for.”
The Billies proceeded to score 10 runs on 9 hits in the bottom of the sixth inning, and trailed by one with the score 16-15. Dockery sparked the burst when she doubled, scoring 2 runs. Kendall Carey hit a home run, adding 2 more runs. Erin Bray then grounded as another run scored. Zaira Duarte singled, scored and then Bloxham singled in 2 runs. Dockery came back to the plate and singled and scored another run. Finally, Bray drew a walk and scored a run.
NATHAN BOFTO / SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
“I told the team, ‘Do it for your loved ones. Do it for Jami and Steve,’” Bloxham recalled about that moment. “Because we had dedicated the game to them.”
The Billies then took the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning after an Outlaws error, which allowed Duarte to take second. Bloxham then doubled, scoring Duarte. After another out, in which Bloxham advanced to third, Carey hit a ground ball and Bloxham scored.
“It just all blew up,” Derrick said. “At the time, I didn’t even look back at the scoreboard with all those runs. I was like, ‘I don’t want to know how close we are!’ Because that is the culture we’re trying to implement – pass the stick. Pass it to the person next to you, and believe that they can do it too. Have belief in the person that’s up to bat and that batter also has that belief that you’re going to follow them and do your job as well.”
Belief. Trust. Team. They are themes, Derrick said, that she hopes can carry the Billies through the second half of a tough season.
