By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Game 3 of the Central Valley Conference baseball game between South Salem and Sprague took the essence of the first game of the series and doubled down on it.
The offense was there. A ton of it. The two squads answered, and they answered, and they answered. Every run, every hit and every home run, both teams hit two in Friday’s game, just amplified everytime they happened as the Saxons looked for the sweep and the Olympians looked to halt the South Salem winning streak.
It was 5-4 Sprague after one, and the Olys led 6-5 after two. South Salem pulled ahead, going into the fourth up 9-8, Sprague pulled ahead 11-9, going into the bottom half of the fourth inning. The Saxons cut the deficit to one going into the fifth, at 11-10 and then we had ourselves a lull in offensive action as the score held going into the bottom of the sixth inning before the offense picked things up over the final inning-and-a-half of the game.
It was echoes of Volcanoes Stadium last year, where it was a similar high-scoring affair in which the Saxons defeated Sprague 16-15 to close out that series last year as well.
“It was like a three-and-a-half hour long game and pretty much the same score and everything. It felt like that, to be honest. It was surreal, our guys just being able to come up big in big moments the whole game,” said South Salem’s Sawyer Nelson. “From being down, to keep battling, grinding and coming back. It was a great game, it was really fun.”
Nelson and Gavin Price hit home runs in Friday’s contest. Boyd Messman, Jace Dalton, and Avery Lohrman each hit home runs for Sprague as well as seven innings weren’t enough to decide a winner in this one.
It was tied at 14 going into the eighth, and as tired as they were from beating each other up, the two heavyweights of the City of Salem hung tough. Hanging zero’s in the eighth inning to force a ninth round with daylight dwindling fast.
It showed the grit and determination of both of these teams that they didn’t fade into tiredness and just continued to face the adversity head-on in search of the victory at Gilmore Field City Park.
“We definitely grew as a team this series. We’ve played a lot harder than in most games that we gave away. This is a great series going forward to know what we can do better and learn from it,” said Sprague’s Andrew Mhoon. “I call it a bloodbath. That’s what we call it. They’re the closest team to us. A lot of guys know each other real well, and it’s a really competitive series. A lot of energy, a lot of emotions, and we didn’t end up on top this time.”
Sprague couldn’t plate a run in the top half of the ninth, but South Salem did. Nelson got on base with a lead-off single. He later stole second to put him in position for a win if the opportunity presented itself.
It did.
On the fourth pitch of Jackson Buckingham’s at-bat, with one out on the board in the bottom of the ninth, Buckingham ripped a single to drive home Nelson for the 15-14 victory to complete the CVC sweep of Sprague Friday night.
“It’s definitely made us a better team. Even off the field we’re better people,we learn from it, and that’s the biggest thing and learning life lessons from it,” said Jackson Buckingham. “It was a team effort. A lot of things didn’t go our way, and we had to make it work. As a team, nothing is as motivating as being at the plate, and I see that fastball, I’m ready for it.”
South Salem wraps up CVC play this next week with their series with West Salem, while Sprague will close out their CVC slate with McNary this next week.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
