By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– Something just clicked for the Stayton baseball team entering the bottom of the fourth inning.
They trailed Cascade 2-0 in the rubber match of their three-game, Oregon West Conference series on Thursday afternoon. Colton Connally helped keep the Cougars off the board outside of two opportunities that Cascade took full advantage of to pull ahead.
Sitting in a two-way tie for third-place in league with North Marion/Gervais, the Eagles were looking for any opportunities to back their pitcher up in Connally with how well he, and the Stayton defense were working up to this point.
“It was really nice to see Colton go down the plate and throw strikes. It was Lucas (Joyce) and a bunch of other guys who got us started and going, really picked up the energy, and got our benches going. We realized that when we were down by two, that it was time to step things up and get going. We all put it together and helped us win,” said Stayton’s Owen Mitzel.
The Eagles began to time out Cascade starter Carter Condon, who came out strongly himself to try to close out a series win for the Cougs, and eventually Stayton pulled ahead 3-2 by the end of the inning.
Connally kept Cascade off the board in the fifth, and the Eagle bats kept rolling in the bottom half of the fifth inning as they pushed their lead to 6-2 going into the sixth inning Stayton swung momentum fully into their favor as the two squads enter the final week of the regular season this next week.
“It started pretty good,” Cascade’s Ethan Hendricks said of how the game started. “By about the fifth inning…they started to hit the ball more into more of the gaps.”
The Cougars end the regular season with Marshfield on Saturday in a non-league game before heading to play their final OWC series against Newport starting on Monday.
“Go 100 percent, all we got. No errors, fix everything,” said Hendricks, who went 4-for-4 with 2RBI’s in the game.
The win on Thursday helped Stayton keep pace with North Marion, who completed their sweep of Sweet Home on Thursday in Aurora, for third-place in the Oregon West Conference standings going into the final week of the season. With third-place still up for grabs and playoff/play-in positioning there, this next series will be huge for the Eagles.
“This next series is going to be really important. We’re going to take it one game at a time, and we’ll get it done and get a win,” Mitzel said. “This season, not only is it about baseball, but this season has helped us grow as individuals and become better people. We’ve been able to improve on team chemistry and come closer as well.”
Mitzel and Oliver Hunt each led the Eagles with three hits each, Mason Silbernagel and Mitzel each had team-high 2RBI’s in the victory on Thursday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
