By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
LINCOLN CITY, Ore.– The Taft baseball team put the ball into play Saturday afternoon, and set the tone early in their 12-0, five-inning victory over Scio at Taft High School to close out their 3A Special District 3 schedule 14-2 on their Senior Day.
It started slow for the Tigers. Taft put the ball in play, scoring four runs in the opening two innings against the young Logger defense they were going up against. Scio’s Adam West led the Scio defense with two strikeouts, and his defense picked up the other four outs in the air and on the ground during those first two innings.
But it was the bottom of the third inning in which the Tigers began to pull away. It was there where they really rallied the bats and began to pressure the Logger defense to make a play. Seven runs they scored in that frame to help turn a once 4-0 lead into an 11-0 one by inning’s end before adding one more in the bottom half of the fourth inning en route to the victory.
Those runs, the offense and their defense that went on to hold the Loggers to two hits in the game, it was all big as they wrap up their regular season on Monday in Mount Angel against Kennedy, one of the top teams in 2A/1A in a good tune-up for the postseason run ahead coming off a tough League slate.
“We knew we had to get the bats rolling,” said Taft’s JJ McCormick. “(Kennedy’s) will be a good test for us to be prepared for anyone against us (in the playoffs). It’ll be a good road game… Just always make sure our pats are always there and just minimize errors.”
Scio ends the season 8-15 overall and 8-8 in league play. Their eight league wins were a four-win improvement from last season with a roster that features eight freshmen, five sophomores, and only six upperclassmen.
They learned from this year. Learning from those tough teams that they’ve played like the Tigers, Blanchet, Santiam Christian, and Yamhill-Carlton on their league schedule served more as valuable reps than anything else.
“It was an up-and-down year, but we had a lot of learning experiences and some tough teams in our league this year. So to play those top-tier teams, it was something that gave us a lot of experience that we’ll use in the years to come,” said Scio’s Head Coach Jacob Ruby. “We got a lot of at-bats against really good pitchers and top tear guys there, and we got some things to clean up. Just doing the little things a little bit more/ Sometimes with these young groups, sometimes you simplify some things and hopefully in the years to come we can really tighten things up and get to a level where you see those teams making all those little precise things.”
Arley Lebard and Triston Garton had the two hits for the Loggers in Saturday’s season finale. West struck out four batters in three innings of work pitching for Scio.
McCormick led Taft with three hits and drove in two runs. Zack Hankins and Kai Bayer each drove in two runs for the Tigers in the victory.
With their defense slowing down the bats of Taft in the opening two innings, the Loggers had some early
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
