By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– South Salem’s baseball team is working through the challenges of a young lineup, using early matchups against quality competition as a proving ground.
At Roto-Rooter Park in Keizer on Wednesday, the Saxons faced another measuring stick in Grant, last season’s 6A state runner-up.
Grant pulled away for a 9–2 win, doing most of its damage in just two innings. The Portland-based Generals broke it open with a three-run third and a four-run sixth, capitalizing on South Salem’s control issues. The Saxons issued eight free passes in those frames—seven walks and a hit batter—along with two hits, forcing them to rely on an offense that is still finding its rhythm early in the season.
“We got to cut down on the walks. That’s killing us, giving up free bags every time and that’s causing runs. We’re going to work on that,” starts Sawyer Nelson. “We learned through the last couple of losses that we’re not being aggressive early in counts and we’re letting the umpires dictate our at-bats. It’s not helping us at all, I feel like that’s one thing, swinging early in counts and putting pressure on the other team.”
Despite some inconsistency, the Saxons showed flashes on offense. They took a brief 1–0 lead in the first when Ben Greer drove in Nelson with a sacrifice fly after Nelson singled and Teagan Scott walked. In the fourth, South Salem capitalized on an error and a walk, scoring on a wild pitch and a Ryder Johnston groundout.
The Saxons now turn their attention to Saturday’s doubleheader against Mountain View, looking to build more consistency on both sides of the ball. After a challenging stretch that included Grant and Clackamas earlier in the week, they believe the experience will pay off moving forward.
“It’s going to help, we can learn from our mistakes. Losing in our last game last year was our only loss, we really didn’t get a chance to learn from any mistakes. We were slowly going downhill and playing worse and worse without learning from any mistakes. It’s going to help us get through these growing pains and it’s going to work itself out,” said Nelson.
Nelson led the Saxons with two hits. Kellan Bowman, in three-and-a-third innings of work, struck out five batters in the game.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
