By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.– The game between McNary and Cascade was electric to close out the Springfield Tournament on Saturday.
It was a back-and-forth affair as both teams looked to close out the tournament strongly. The 4A Cougars took a 1-0 lead going into the third inning, only to see the 6A Celtics surge ahead for a 4-1 lead. Cascade rallied to tie the game up at four behind a three-run fourth inning to make it a 4-4 game going into the bottom half of the inning.
“Base-hit, after base-hit. Not a lot of us are going to hit Home Runs, we have to rely on our base-running and the technical side,” said McNary’s Tyler San on the game.
“It was electric, I love it. That’s what the game is for,” adds Cascade’s Wyatt Metcalf.
Metcalf had a two-run single in that fourth inning to help the Cougars get back to within one of McNary. Cade Bitikofer tied it up on the next at-bat, driving Metcalf home that made it even.
But the tie was short-lived. Xaiver Gonzalez pulled the Celtics back ahead off a Sacrifice Fly in the bottom half of the fifth inning. A Camden Sajovic single and a San Sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning helped give McNary a 7-4 cushion going into the seventh inning. And that cushion, they needed it coming down the stretch as Cascade wasn’t going away easily.
These four games have helped McNary see where they are at. It showed them that they needed to work on the fundamentals of the game so more points San. And yet, the Celtics walked out of the Springfield Tournament 3-1 on the weekend.
“It’s been good. We’ve been playing against good teams…Silverton, Cascade, those are good teams, good ball players that forced us to play and help out our pitcher,” said San.
And McNary came through in the clutch to help their pitcher to close out the game. The Celts held off a charging Cascade squad that scored twice in the seventh, both runs coming off a 2RBI single by Slade Hudson, to win the game 7-6
Despite the result, the tournament helped Cascade see where they’re at. Three of their four losses came within three runs, two within two, against 5A teams like West Albany and Redmond and a 6A team like McNary as they’ll head back to practice to work towards their doubleheader against The Dalles/Dufur on April 4.
“It helped us a lot, going up against the big schools…competing everyday and it’s been great for us,” said Metcalf. “We just got to do the little things right. Getting the simple things down.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
