By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore.– Walking out for the seventh inning, the McNary softball team knew that the job wasn’t done yet.
The Celtics led 9-3 going into the final inning of what was ultimately the de facto Central Valley Conference District Title Game on Monday. And the game lived up to the hype from their previous two contests that saw the two teams split entering this final game.
McNary built a 3-1 lead going into the fourth inning before West Salem began chipping away at the deficit. They got a run back in the top half of the fourth, shut down the Celtics in the bottom half of the fourth and West Salem tied it up in the fifth off a solo Home Run by Courtney Gills.
It was a challenge by the Titans to McNary to keep their energy up.
“We fought really well. We didn’t hang our heads and we kept our energy high no matter what was happening. We always found a way to comeback and keep it close,” starts Gill.
“It’s going to fuel us. It’s going to show us that we can’t look anybody and we got to play until the end. We battled really hard and we got a couple of tough games ahead. We got to keep pushing and hopefully we’ll see them in the Playoffs.”
And accepting the challenge the Celts did.
A three-run fifth inning put McNary back ahead, leading West Salem 6-3 before shutting down the Titans in the bottom half of the inning. And then in the bottom half of the inning, the Celtics added to their lead thanks to a three-run Home Run by Natalie Macik.
The momentum that was lurching in the way of West Salem, was back in the favor of McNary going into the top half of the seventh inning.
“That was major for our team. We came in with energy at the beginning and after we started stringing our hits together and that Home Run…we were so locked-in on the game after that,” said Macik “It was just energy honestly.”
But even then. That six-run cushion wasn’t a guarantee. It was breathing room, but the Celts had to close the door on West Salem knowing how good of a squad the Titans are.
West Salem got a single and a triple to get on the board before McNary could get an out. The Celtics turned a fly-ball into out number two, but a run came in and Addison Lowery singled to get another runner on base.
But before West Salem could reduce the deficit further, McNary was able to get the last out, a fly-out to end the game in favor of the Celtics 9-5. The win gives McNary the CVC Title with one game remaining in league for the Celtics coming down the stretch of the regular season.
“We were all pretty confident in each other and we knew no matter what, we’ll be fine,” said Ashlyn Wittnebel of the seventh. “It was really big because last year we didn’t do good against West, so this year we wanted to come out and try our hardest and do our best.”
Macik’s Home Run was one of two for McNary on the day, the other coming from Josalyn Netzel in the bottom half of the third inning, which was a two-run Home Run for the Celtics. Wittnnebel drove in two runs, with two hits and struck out three batters pitching for McNary.
Olivia Nunez and Aubrey Peil both had two hits for the Titans in the game with Lucy Duval striking out five batters in the game.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
