By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.– Silverton’s Nolan Horner struck again.
For the second time in three games, in roughly 24 hours since his first walk-off hit against North Bend up at North Marion High School, Horner hit another walk-off hit for the Foxes to defeat South Eugene 3-2 Thursday at the Hamlin Sports Complex.
“It’s sick, but I wouldn’t have been in that situation if Colson (Swartz) didn’t hit a triple. I mean that was a huge clutch up hit for him and was the only reason why I was able to do it and he was able to see it through and was able to score on that, it was huge,” said Horner of his hit.
The at-bat earlier, when Swartz tripled, the Silverton sophomore had just gotten the Foxes on the board. Up until the bottom of the seventh inning, the Axe were ahead 2-0 in a pitchers duel in what were tough conditions to play in with blustery winds and rain in Springfield. Both Sawyer Enderle and Swartz, along with South Eugene’s Andrew Roadman, were able to locate their pitches well despite the conditions and keep the game in check throughout.
The only times the Axe scored were in the first inning on a passed ball and on a Roadman Sacrifice Fly that gave South Eugene the small margin of a lead that they had.
Silverton had their chances. The Foxes had the tying run when it was still 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, on third, and couldn’t bring the runner in. Even down 2-0 an inning before their three–run seventh to win it, Silverton had the bases juiced with two outs and couldn’t bring one in.
It looked like the Foxes’ four-game winning streak was on the brink of being snapped despite an otherwise strong outing by the squad.
Until. They pulled the rabbit out of the hat once more and got the ball to fall when they needed it the most. After a lead-off out, they got two on the basepaths through a Kane Mack and Hudson Waples singles.
That led into Swartz bases-clearing triple that tied the game up at two and put Silverton in a favorable position for the win with one out on the board. It was a sense of trust in each other to just keep it going and trust each other, no matter the ups-and-downs points Swartz.
“It’s big. It’s going to be great carrying it into league. Yesterday (at North Marion), we had a walk-off too at the end, so we know we can do it,” starts Swartz. “It’s good to have these close games early so we can persevere through and keep going. We don’t get down. We’re a team that will stay up and come through. I trust every guy behind me. We all trust each other and just get the next guy up.”
It took four pitches, on a 2-2 count, for Horner to be the hero of the game, the hero of the day, to close out the game as he sent the ball to left field to drive Swartz home. It wasn’t a sacrifice bunt, but it got the job done nonetheless as the Foxes closed out their fifth game in four days Thursday afternoon and improving to 5-0 on the year.
“It’s great, their guy on the mound, he was dishing, but at the end of the day, we found a way to claw back,” said Horner.
