By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Baseball can be weird sometimes.
One day, a team can win by six. The next, you’re going to extras.
Deep into extra innings.
And that’s what happened between the Marion Berries and the Bend Elks over the course of the last two days.
On Tuesday night, the Elks defeated the Berries 8-2, and on Wednesday, we saw a marathon game that went 13 innings between the two West Coast League squads that saw the Elks taking the WCL game 2-1.
“It’s baseball,” said Marion Berries Head Coach Tucker Brack said. “Baseball…everyday is a new day, and that’s why I think it’s the greatest game. you never know what to expect. You can give up 20, get beat 20-1, and the next day you have a game like this.
“That’s why it’s so difficult and just so mentally challenging. You never know what to expect.”
The Berries threw seven pitchers in Wednesday’s game, changing it up and keeping the Bend bats off their game. Halting the Elks momentum from Tuesday as the two squads went to battle on Wednesday night.
Marion struck first in the bottom half of the fourth inning, Jake Dodge drove in a run off a single that put the Berries ahead 1-0. A passed ball in the top half of the seventh allowed Bend to tie things up at one apiece.
The pass ball didn’t negatively affect the Marion Berries pitchers as they hunkered back down and kept them off the board to give their offense an opportunity to try to regain the lead late offensively. And they, Marion, gave themselves plenty of chances to do so in the ninth inning and into the extra frames. But just like their defense, Bend’s defense, too, kept them off the board as well.
“Our pitchers set the tone, and they gave us a chance. They did a fabulous job tonight,” said Brack. “We had some opportunities… we kept giving ourselves chances, and we just didn’t execute. Maybe not a great at-bat, base-running, something that we got ourselves into that situation where we could’ve been done a while ago. Pitchers, geez, you only give up two runs in 13 innings. You expect to win a ball game. We got to score more than one run if we expect to win. We got to be better offensively.”
The difference in this one came in the top half of the 13th inning when Bend’s Jace Miller hit a solo home run that handed the Elks a 2-1 lead going into the bottom half of the frame. That was when Bend’s defense buckled down one more time, closing out the marathon game 2-1 as the two squads will close out their three-game set in Salem Thursday at Chemeketa Community College.
“Hopefully, we can pitch it like we did (tonight) again and find some offense. You can’t score one run over 14 innings and expect to win many games. We just got to be better offensively,” said Brack. “They found a way to get it done and credit to them.”
Sprague’s Andrew Mhoon led the Berries offense with two hits as seven different Marion Berries collected a hit in the game. The Marion Berries pitching staff combined to strike out 15 batters with Matt Kosderka striking out four batters. Tyrelle Chadwick led the Elks with four strikeouts. Bryce Clavon and Even Gentil each led the Bend offense with two hits each.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
