By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
INDEPENDENCE, Ore– West Albany’s Scotty Cummings had a break-out game for the Post 58 Crushers on Saturday. With three hits on the day, Cummings led a Crusher offense that produced 13 hits on the day Saturday in Post 58’s 8-6 victory over the Vencer 17U squad at Central High School.
“I had quiet a rough start, I just couldn’t get my bat swinging, but it’s coming around slowly. I did better today, hopefully it carries over to the big games and stuff against Corvallis and the State Tournament. Hopefully it can carry the momentum,” said Cummings.
The game was a quick add-on for the Crushers, who had a 12-hour notice of the game following their doubleheader split with the Post 20 Dirtbags on Wednesday in Dallas. Vencer had a cancelation and was looking for an opponent, and the Crushers were able to fill the void and got the game on the books
The bats continued to be hot from those two games with 11 players to play with, one being Owen Eaton who was called up from the Single-A Post 58 Mac’s squad to add some depth for the team on this day.
The Crushers jumped out to a 4-1 lead going into the bottom half of the third inning before Vencer tied it up at four by the start of the fifth inning. Nate Rauch, Santi Alarcon and Carter Hewes each led the Vencer squad with two hits each.
“They jumped out early, a lot of hard hit line drives. Their number 10 (James Collier), he hit the ball real hard in the first inning, barely got under the ball,” starts Rauch. “We got a lot of guys from all over Oregon, just got to keep to know each other better. Work on Chemistry, keep staying locked in all through the games and come out to win some of these.”
The Crushers hung a two-spot in the top half of the sixth inning and then traded runs over the remainder of the game, holding onto the lead to bridge some momentum over to Wednesday’s doubleheader with the Marketmen at Regis High School.
“For not knowing about a game and showing up less than 12 hours, I think we did great. Great approach and great mindset coming into it. Explosive. We just had to do what we had to do. Approach. Some big hits like James had a bomb, even though his was an out, it was those big explosive plays to get the momentum going and getting the pressure on the other team. Just put it in play. No matter if it’s an out or whatever it is, you put the pressure on the other team to get outs and start the momentum.”
“We just need to swing the bat and stay trusting our team, trusting our players, trusting our catchers, trusting our pitchers. Trusting everyone on the field and knowing that we can get it done,” said Cummings.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
