By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– The South Salem baseball program is already in the talks to be one of the teams battling for the 6A State Championship Title this season. But in Tuesday’s 5-4, walk-off victory over the three-time State Champions in West Linn, the victory was one of those, ‘Oh yeah, we’re capable of doing it’ moments for the squad.
“I think it’s important for belief. When you have a team that’s pretty good, that’s great, but until you kind of prove it against the best teams in the State, then it’s just this idea of ‘how good are we?’. So that was pretty big. It gave us an opportunity to play the three-peat State Champions at the potential State Championship site, and we showed our guys that you belong. You’re as good as you think you are, and that’s the big deal for the kids,” said Saxon Head Coach Max Price.
Both teams traded runs in the first inning, deadlock at one going into the second inning and it remained tied at 1one going into the third before the Lions pulled ahead off an RBI single by Sloan Baker and a sacrifice fly by Gavin Thaut. West Linn took a 3-1 lead into the bottom half of the third inning.
South Salem pulled ahead, leading 4-3 going into the fourth inning thanks to an offensive surge that momentarily put the Saxons outfront before West Linn knotted it back up at four in the top half of the fourth inning.
And, tied 4-4, it seemed as if the jitters from the magnitude of the game had subsided, and both teams looked to take control of the game defensively. It was living up to the hype going into the fifth inning, and it continued into the final stretch of the game.
Both teams turned three-and-outs in the sixth, West Linn got two baserunners on in the top half of the seventh to only be denied by South Salem.
But for the Saxons, they weren’t going to be denied on this day going into the bottom half of the seventh. Teagan Scott ripped off a lead-off double, and Noah Scharer intentionally walked with one out on the board with Gavin Price coming up to the plate.
South Salem was one pitch away from winning the game. The Lions were one pitch away from forcing extra innings. In this meeting, it was the forward that occurred as Price doubled to bring home Scott for the walk-off victory.
“I wanted it for my teammates, I wanted that more than I wanted it for myself. At the end of the day, my teammates have always been there for me, and I want them to win more than I want myself to win,” said Gavin Price. “Our team has been together for so long that we have faith in each other. We have such good team chemistry that we’ve been together, and we trust each other in hard situations to always come back and have our backs.”
Price finished with three hits and drove in three runs to lead the Saxon offense on Tuesday. Scott collected two hits, and Harrison Buckingham struck out five in six-and-a-third innings pitched.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
