By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– There was a story told about South Salem’s Sawyer Nelson that best described his competitive spirit on Wednesday afternoon at Nelson’s Signing Day at South Salem High School.
It was the end of Game 2 of a doubleheader against Grants Pass, and Nelson himself was having a down game when he came up to the plate with the Saxons down 3-1 in the bottom half of the seventh trailing 3-1 on May 21.
He found himself down quickly 1-2, but that was when his willingness to compete came through. Nelson battled back, working the count to 3-2 with some quality foul ball hacks and just overall being patient as he eventually took a pitch to the house for a walk-off three-run home run that lifted the Saxons 4-3 on that day.
It was one of 13 home runs and brought in three of his 64 RBI’s on the year. Both are single-season records as Nelson broke several of them last year for South Salem. But, like he did that day celebrating with his team, he was just looking to contribute to help his team.
“We’re just having fun. I’m not trying to do too much, I’m just out there having fun and doing what I love doing. It’s not hard for me to be calm in those moments, I’m just out there having fun,” Nelson said of the story looking back.
On Wednesday, in the Lower Commons just inside next to the football field, Nelson was signing his Letter of Intent to play baseball at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. LMU went 29-29 last season and reached the WCC Conference Playoffs where they went 2-2.
“When they started recruiting me, I knew this is where I wanted to be and when I took that visit down there, I immediately knew I wanted to go here and where I want to be for college and this is going to be an awesome chance for me,” Nelson said of LMU.
Interestingly enough, Nelson will be joining another Salem player down there in Andrew Mhoon. The former Sprague infielder is in his freshman year with Loyola Marymount University at the moment.
But for now, Nelson knows he still has work to be done with his Saxon brothers before college ball. He even alluded to it as well when he was giving his speech before he signed that he’s confident in his team that this is the year they can hopefully bring home a Baseball State Title to South Salem.
“We’re all going to be locked in on one thing and that’s a State Championship. We’re all thinking about that and nothing else and sky’s the limit,” said Nelson.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
