By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SILVERTON, Ore.– It was just one bad inning at the one bad time in the game that turned an otherwise back-and-forth game into a tough jam for the Silverton softball team on Wednesday evening.
It was a six-run inning by North Eugene that turned a 6-4 Highlander lead into a near run-rule disaster for the Foxes down 12-4 going into the bottom half of the fourth inning. A few timely hits, featured by a Lydia Taylor Grand Slam, a few walks and errors, had aided North Eugene towards that sizable lead and momentum into their favor.
But, that’s when Silverton rose to the challenge.
They want to prove that the fourth inning was just a fluke as they went back to work. They shut down North Eugene in the fifth and sixth innings, and their bats came back around.
And by the seventh inning, the Foxes trailed 12-9 going into the seventh inning. Hannah Houts drove in three of the five runs that Silverton scored during the fifth and sixth innings, three coming off a home run that the senior hit during the sixth inning of the contest. But they just ran out of outs there at the end to complete the comeback, falling to North Eugene 13-9 at home.
“They showed what they can do like in Medford when they can battle back, and I felt the same way. I felt our bats can come alive at any time, and that’s what I’ve been preaching to them all season so far is to find the fire within yourselves. Find that drive. Find what drives you, keep battling. We’re a really good team,” said Silverton Head Coach Ralph Cortez. “We’ll take what we learn, battle with the bats, and just stay together as a team. Focus, that’s all we can do.”
Cortez spoke highly of his two freshmen pitching in Easton Rains and Brynlee Dalisky. The two have stepped in and filled in for McKenzee Petersen, who’s been slowly working her way back into the pitching rotation after suffering an injury in the first week of games. Petersen played Thursday against North Eugene, batting and playing at second base for the Foxes.
“They’ve been doing a great job. They’ve been keeping us in games,” Cortez said of Rains and Dalisky. “The freshman has been doing great. They’ve been battling. They were off a little bit today.”
Friday will bring another good opportunity for the freshmen and the Silverton team as a whole to get better as they head to play Sunset on the road. The first pitch is at 5:30pm.
Houts led the Foxes with 5RBI’s with three hits. Petersen drove in two runs as well for Silverton in the defeat.
