By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The last four games for the Chemeketa Community College softball team have been tough. Clackamas and Mount Hood have been sitting up in the Top 3 in the NWAC South Region standings as of late.
The match-ups have helped the Storm see where they are at going into next week’s home match-ups with Centralia, Clark and Umpqua coming up. Seeing the ball, seeing those better pitchers, have been beneficial for Chemeketa six games into the NWAC South conference schedule.
“It’s helped us see the ball a lot more because we are constantly seeing those good pitchers with that good spin and it is developing us as a team, so we gotta keep making progress and keep pushing forward with our at-bats and our swings,” said Jessica Rule. “We’ll take what we learned in these last couple of games with our hitting, our defense and the errors that we made and really work on them during practice these next few days and come back hard. We have the talent on this team.”
Rule struck out one in three-and-two-third innings pitched and had three hits and two runs driven in for Chemeketa in Saturday’s home doubleheader. Aliyah Wilsey struck out three batters in three-and-a-third innings pitching with three hits as a batter as Chemeketa’s offense collected 12 hits in their 14-3, 15-2 defeats to Mount Hood.
The Saints have won 14-straight and saw Gracie Hodgson hit two home runs and Reese Wisman and Kate Duham each hitting home runs in the doubleheader sweep.of the Storm.
“It’s been great, we are really great in being consistent with the ball, our defense is pretty solid. I think if we keep up our hitting, our starting nine is really solid. If we keep doing that we’ll be good,” said Mount Hood’s Mia Zachary.
The West Salem-grad and Saints sophomore hit her sixth triple of the season Saturday and had two hits while driving in three runs in her first season with Mount Hood, Zachary was at St. Martin’s last season.
“It’s been great, I’ve been able to swing away. I’ve been a slapper, I’ve gotten like six triples right now, and I feel great. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing,” said Zachary, who’s hitting .394 in 71 plate appearances with a home run and 13 stolen bases.
Mount Hood will host Lower Columbia on Friday and travel to Clark on Saturday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
