By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.– Henry Beyer was wheeling and dealing in his start against Knappa Thursday afternoon at Kennedy High School.
Through the first 16 outs, the first five-and-a-third innings, he surrendered one hit and no outs on 62 pitches. Through six complete that the junior threw, two hits, he allowed to no walks on 66 pitches.
Pretty much, he was on fuego in what would be a complete game effort for the Trojans against a traditionally strong 2A/1A program in the Loggers.
And what’s even more impressive, it wasn’t his best outing, and he still went the distance, struck out eight, and allowed three hits.
“I felt good throwing, but I was not really hitting my spots today, and it was kinda making me mad, but it worked out for me, so I went with it,” said Beyer. “My field helped me out too. Without my field, I would’ve been struggling really well. But I felt good with my performance. It was good for us, we couldn’t make too many errors and we didn’t make too many errors and that’s a win.”
His defense put the work in to make sure Beyer’s pitch count didn’t climb too high by getting in front of the balls that came their way and converting them into outs to preserve what ultimately became a 5-0 victory.
“It really meant a lot to us to get this game in. I didn’t think we were going to win, but we came in hot. The first ABs were ok, the second through the bats rattled,” said Colby Rich. “The outfield did well. They kept the balls down, and the infield did amazing. Gio ( Vaquera) did good, Kody (Graves) had good plays at short.”
Rich accounted for three of the Trojans’ five runs in the victory. Two came off of a double in the fourth inning and another that came off of a single in the sixth. The Trojans took advantage of two Knappa errors that they turned into runs in an otherwise defensive battle between the two squads on Wednesday.
Outside of four plays that Kennedy would go on to score on, it was as even as it would get. A defensive battle as Oliver Stevens struck out seven for the Loggers and Ethan Olson picked up where Stevens left off to close out the game. Similar to their Trojan-counterparts, Knappa knows how much this game will help going into their game with Umpqua Valley Christian on Saturday and going into this final week of their preseason schedule.
“It showed us our flaws, what we need to work on to improve. It definitely brought us out, and it really showed us what we need to get better on. We’re grateful for a tough first few games to bring us out our shells,” said Knappa’s Jude Miller. “Definitely our cuts. Hitting our players in the chest, playing catch, simple catch, and the simple routines, we need to get better at that.”
Miller led the Loggers with two hits, with Karson Casper collecting another hit for Knappa.
Kennedy will head to play Clatskanie on Monday before playing Nestucca before entering 2A/1A Special District 2 play.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
