By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
INDEPENDENCE, Ore.– Sprague’s Holden Rasmussen gave the Vencer 18U squad a chance to win a ball game late when he came in to pitch in Tuesday’s game with the Portland Baseball Club.
Trailing 2-1 when he took over in the third inning, Rasmussen held the PBC squad to a single walk and handed the Vencer defense their first shutout of the game.
The incoming senior pitched four innings of one-hit baseball as this Summer has given Rasmussen to build some momentum going into his final year of High School ball.
“It’s given me a lot of motivation going into Senior Year, we’ve played a lot of good competition. It feels good to get a lot of good reps in, a lot of reps, to get me ready for Senior Year,” said Rasmussen.
“It felt good, knowing we can get them down and use our bats to get the lead back. Working as a team, I couldn’t have done it without the infield today and the outfield. They did a lot of good this to Right Field, caught by (Carson) Troutman, a lot of plays at third, a lot of saves. Without them, I wouldn’t think it’d be the same.”
Vencer tied the game up at two in the bottom half of the third inning off a solo Home Run by Warrenton’s Talon McGorty, the future Linn-Benton ballplayer energized the Vencer bats enough to build a 4-2 lead by the time the fifth inning came around.
“It was nice. We were down by one, and I hadn’t caught a barrel like that in a while, so that definitely felt good,” said McGorty.
For McGorty, going to Linn-Benton has been a dream of his. He saw Jake Morrow, also from Warrenton, and Dylan Rush from Astoria go join the Roadrunner program, and McGorty wanted to follow in their footsteps. Something he’ll get to do as he goes from one great ball program in Warrenton to another at LBCC starting in the fall.
“It’s a huge opportunity. Two of my buddies, Jake Morrow and Dylan Rush, went there, so it’s always been a dream of mine to go and follow their footsteps and go play. It turned out, and I’m happy for it,” McGorty said. “Coming from Warrenton with a good coach and then going to Linn-Benton with a good coach, it won’t be much different.”
Rasmussen bowed out of the game after the sixth inning, which is where Central’s Jackson Barba came in, and the incoming Panther junior closed out the game in the seventh. Closing out a 4-1 victory for the Vencer 18U squad at Central High School.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
