By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.– Kennedy’s Jake Beyer started the rally and contributed to it on the back-end of it in Wednesday’s comeback-from-behind victory over Monroe/Alsea.
It was the bottom of the sixth inning when Beyer led-off the inning. He singled to get on board. And from there, the Trojans went small-ball with back-to-back bunt singles to load the bases. Despite giving up a Fielder’s Choice for the first out of the inning, Kennedy found themselves in a position to do some damage.
Kennedy trailed the Dragons 5–4 after rallying from an early 5–0 deficit heading into the bottom of the second. They surged with four runs in that frame, trailing 5-4 going into the third inning. That’s when Jake Beyer, who took over for starter Henry Beyer starting in the third inning, delivered five shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out four.
“It’s hard when you start in a hole, but we never gave up and we kept going and we played really well. I’m proud of our team,” said Jake Beyer. “This was probably one of the biggest games of our season. It’s just preparing us for the playoffs and we’re super excited to win it.”
And grind they did. The two teams traded strong defensive innings over the third, fourth and fifth innings as neither team could find that one break to get back into the run column. That was, until the bottom half of the sixth inning when Kennedy found themselves with bases loaded and one out.
There was a feel that momentum was creeping in favor of the Trojans, but it became more of a reality when Jayce Hansen cleared the bases with an 3RBI double. The hit gave Kennedy a then 7-5 lead.
Hansen’s hit was followed two batters later by a two-out RBI double from Colby Rich. Rich later scored on a wild pitch to extend the Trojans’ lead to 9–5. The rally continued when Jake Beyer, who sparked the inning, added an RBI single to make it 10–5 before Monroe escaped the inning.
For Beyer, to be able to contribute twice in the inning as he did was huge.
“It was huge. I wanted to win really bad, so I had to do everything I could to win. It meant a lot,” Beyer said. “We got some hits and it started to get the wheels going for us and we were able to stop them, it was great.
Jake Beyer finished with two hits with an RBI to go with his pitching performance. Henry Beyer, who pitched the first two innings with two strikeouts, matched Hansen’s team-high 3RBI’s with three of his own. Colby Rich had a team-high three hits.
The Trojans will play host to Warrenton on Friday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
