By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SPRINGFIELD, Ore.– The Sprague offense did the bulk of their damage in their 11-1 victory over West Albany on Thursday morning in the opening three outs of the game.
The Olympians, two days removed from their tough defeat to the Bulldogs, plated seven runs in the opening frame. Taking a 7-0 lead into the bottom half of the first inning and led by that amount into the second inning.
“We wanted to come out and give it our all going into next week and getting ready to lock-in. We like to jump on it early and keep on going from there,” said Cameron VanKempen.
VanKempen led the Sprague offense with two hits and drove in a run. The senior also came in during the fifth inning to close out the run-shortened game on Thursday with a three-up, three-down inning.
VanKempen came in for Holden Rasmussen, who got the start in the game. Rasmussen started the game with a one, two, three inning of his own to keep the seven-run lead in check.
And from there, the Olys were rolling. After a scoreless second, they scored four more runs and only surrendered one run defensively and three hits total as they closed out the Springfield Tournament 3-1.
“We did great with keeping the ball in front, not letting it get past us. There’s always work to do, I felt like we had a good game, but there’s always more we can do,” said Rasmussen, who struck out five batters. “Keep getting more reps, stay driven throughout the whole season. We gotta stay in games and have a good mindset the whole game.”
Grant Moyer and Jaxson Redel each drove in two runs each. Sprague will play at Cleveland on Thursday.
The Bulldogs, who also went 3-1 in the tournament, will host Thurston on Tuesday at LBCC. Eli Reese drove in the lone run and Caden Lewis struck out four batters pitching for West Albany.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
