By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Sprague Baseball team just doesn’t give up.
When they opened their 6A State Playoff run on Monday against Lake Oswego, the Lakers struck first and hard as they took advantage of a slow start by the Olympians. A walk and single opened up the game that was followed by a C. Lemon double that drove the two baserunners home.
Sprague quickly got out of the inning, with Jace Dalton striking out the next two batters to close out the first inning.
After that interesting start, the Olys started to stabilize the nerves and then started to get to work. Eventually tying the game up at two going into the fifth inning. Henry Mhoon in the second inning and Holden Rassmussen in the fourth inning drove in the runs off a single and sacrifice fly, respectively.
That started the stream in what eventually, and quite frankly in a hurry, became a raging river of offense for Sprague.
Dalton turned out another zero inning before the Sprague offense turned a six run fifth inning to take an 8-2 lead into the sixth. The Olympian defense produced another strong half inning in the top half of the sixth before they once again got the bats rolling. And it stemmed from their talk as a team after the second inning.
“We had a talk as a team, ‘Stay in this game, Don’t give up’. They hit us hard with that two-run double to start the game. So we just had to talk and get our energy up, don’t get down no matter what,” said Rasmussen. “We don’t let anyone down after any of their outs, strikeouts,. It just stayed up the whole time, and we had a really good fifth inning. I got six up, and I think that’s what did it.”
Like they ended the fifth inning, they loaded up the bases, drawing a bases loaded walk from a hit batter that put Sprague one good hit to the outfield to end the game in run-rule fashion.
The Olympians got just that, but it went over the fence for a Grand Slam. By way of Rassmussen as the junior drove in a game-high 5RBI’s in what became a 13-2 victory in six innings on Monday.
They’re riding high now going into the Round of 16 for the first time in two years, but now it’s just a matter of duplicating it. On Wednesday, they’ll travel to Sherwood to play the Bowmen, the second time that these two teams met with Sprague taking the game 4-0. But Sherwood enters the game just as hyped up as the Olys after their walk-off victory over West Salem on Monday.
“We played them earlier in the year, we know that they’re a good team. We just got to be better. It’ll be a fun match-up,” said Dalton. “We just need to hit. The boys are hot right now, so I’m just staying hot and keeping the line moving. Our bottom of our order is producing, Holden with the ball. We just have to keep doing that and I think we’ll be fine.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
