By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– Silverton-grad and Chemeketa freshman Ryne Hockman pieced together a nice little outing in just his third game pitching at the college level on Sunday.
Hockman started the game, just his second on the year, going six innings for the Storm with one run allowed and two hits against him with Chemeketa leading 2-1 when he exited the game going into the seventh inning.
“I felt good, I was relying a lot on my teammates. Nothing a lot of stuff I could do personally, but they did pretty well behind me,” starts Hockman, who struck out two batters in the game. “(College) is a whole different game out there. I think a lot of my stuff is relying on my teammates helping me out and making plays behind me and I think it’s going well for us.”
The Storm have played a lot of games to start the season.
Since Valentine’s Day, the Storm have played 13, now 15 after Sunday’s NWAC South Region home doubleheader against Southwestern Oregon Community College. And sure, it’s a lot of ballgames in a short amount of time, a lot of wear-and-tear, but it’s hopefully going to get them into the right direction down the stretch.
“I think we just need one. If we can get one then I think we’ll start rolling through games and start winning them. To get over the hump, someone has to make a big play and it’ll give us momentum and we’ll keep it going through these next few games I hope,” said Hockman.
“Just knowing what we’re needing to win. It’s those small mistakes that lead to some bigger problems, but we just got to clean it up some of those smaller things and that’s what we got to do. Do our role,” adds Dylan Cuff.
Cuff played a factor down the stretch to give Chemeketa a spark for the second game of their doubleheader at Roto-Rooter Park in Keizer.
The Storm surrendered five unanswered runs over the final three innings of the game and found themselves trailing the Lakers 6-2 going into the bottom half of the ninth inning. But despite the hole they were in, they began to fight back and eventually loaded up the bases with one out when Cuff came to the plate.
Cuff, who came in as a pinch hitter, drove in two runs on a single to cut the deficit to two.
“You just got to keep the line moving. You got to stay ready, you may not be expecting to go in, but you never know when you’re going to go in. So you got to stay loose, stay warm and continue to grind,” Cuff said.
Chemeketa eventually reloaded the bases, but ran out of ballgame to complete the first-game comeback. but the momentum was there for Chemeketa going in the second game of the twin-bill.
Similar to their first game, the Storm took a 2-0 lead. But the two runs came in the fifth-inning of Game 2 instead of early on like in the first game. One run came when Nick Crawford drove in Drew Rice for the first run of the game off a double before Crawford scoring soon after thanks to a Wild Pitch. Dylan Hanson went the distance, throwing a Complete Game in the seven-inning game with four strikeouts as Chemeketa snapped their seven-game losing streak on Sunday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
