By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Sprague’s Sam Hoda found himself in a jam in the bottom half of the seventh inning on Thursday night against West Salem.
In a 5-2 ballgame, the Olympians leading the Titans, Hoda saw the first two batters he faced get on base with no outs on the board. But slowly, Hoda worked his way out of the situation.
He picked up a strikeout for the first out before following that up with a groundout and flyout to close out a Complete Game effort and the 5-2 victory. The win helped Sprague even the series with West Salem going into Friday’s Central Valley Conference finale back at West Salem High School between the two squads.
“I was pretty nervous, I let the first two runners on but we came back. Great defense, great catch in Left Field by Jaxson Redel to end the game,” said Hoda of the inning. “Every win that we’ve had this season, it’s a great team win. I’m excited for tomorrow against West again.”
The Titans, who snapped a 12-game losing streak to Sprague on Wednesday following their 5-1 victory on the road, carried that momentum over to Thursday’s game. The Titans led 2-0 after two innings and sustained that energy through the first five innings of the game.
Dallin McDonald got the start for West Salem and kept Sprague guessing as West Salem led 2-1 going into the sixth inning.
“For the most part, it started off well. We just lost a hold of it, we still had the energy, but we were missing barrels,” said West Salem’s Wyatt Williams. “The only thing that went wrong today was that one inning. It’s just one little thing. We just have to be there for our guys and be ready to play. It’ll be fun.”
It was in the sixth inning where the Olympians made their move. It was that sixth inning where Sprague strung together a few hits, took advantage of the little things that the Titans gave them to not just tie the game up, but take the lead. By inning’s end, it was a whole new ballgame with Sprague leading 4-1. Hoda followed up the offensive output with a strong bottom half of the inning as the Olys found a way to get it done on Thursday.
“Top of the sixth inning we went four runs right there that went unanswered. It was great from our offense, and then I had a seven-pitch inning from huge plays from our outfielders, it was really clutch from them,” said Hoda.
Hoda struck out three batters and McDonald struck out nine batters for West Salem in six-and-two-third innings pitched. Williams led the Titans with two hits with an RBI. Riley Wilson and Cameron VanKempen each led the Sprague offense with two hits.
Game 3 will start at 5pm on Friday at West Salem High School.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
