By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TURNER, Ore.– Rivalry games can be strange. And put the league title on the line, and things could get interesting.
And it did.
The first two times that the Stayton and Cascade softball teams met in Oregon West Conference play, the games were decided by ten runs. The Cougars took the April 21 game in Turner 10-0 before the Eagles evened up the series following their 14-4 victory on May 1 over in Stayton.
Nearly two weeks later, the OWC series back in Turner, and this time for the title, both team’s offenses went cold. Like this game was decided, by one run, and that one run was the only scored in Wednesday’s game.
That run came way of freshman Maddy Tingle in the bottom of the seventh inning in walk-off fashion. A single that drove home Kaitlyn Webb for the 1-0 victory and gave the Cougars the OWC Title with a league game left on the schedule and two games left in the regular season.
“It was stressful because I’ve never done anything in high school like this. It was a new experience,” said Tingle.
It best describes the rivalry between Cascade Marty Jeppsen. A series like this is bound to go the way that it did.
“Between us and Stayton, it’s bound to happen, and it’s the way it goes. One team will have a big win, another team will have a big win, and then we’ll have a close one,” he said
And a game like this going into the postseason, it shows off the ability of both team’s defense’s.
Stayton has stepped up big following their defeat to Sweet Home on April 23, having won eight-straight until Wednesday’s contest and looking to finish the regular season off strongly with Sweet Home on Thursday and Marist on Tuesday. The Eagles held Cascade to six hits in the game, and despite leaving 13 runners on base, are looking like a strong program with the postseason right around the corner.
“It’s going to help us, Cascade’s a really, really good team, and it gives us an idea of who we’re going to face in the playoffs. Mentally, physically prepare for anyone we face,” said Mackenzie Schacher. “Both teams just came with the energy. Our team had a talk before the game that we were going to go all-out. This is one of the best teams in our league, so we’re going to sell everything out and make it our best and do the best that we can.”
For Cascade, the ability to win a game in this fashion was big going into their OWC finale against Newport on Thursday and going into Monday’s game with 3A powerhouse Scio. To prove to themselves that they can win those high scoring games like at Marist, those larger margin of victory that they’ve had this Spring or even closer ball games like against Canby on March 25 in Medford or on Wednesday. That no matter what, they can pull it off at the end.
“To win a game 1-0, that hopefully shows them that we can win a game however it takes, whatever it takes. Whether it means 1-0, we’ll win 1-0. If we need to win 20-15, we’ll win 20-15. So I think it was big for that reason right there,” said Jeppsen.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
