By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Cameron VanKempen started the seventh inning push for the Olympians towards a walk-off victory against McNary on Tuesday afternoon.
It was a tied game, 6-6, going into the bottom half of the seventh. Both teams had been clawing all game long to this point, and now it was gut-check time for both of them.
McNary jumped out to a 6-0 lead going into the bottom half of the third inning. The Celtics jumped on the sticks from the start and made the Olympians go to their bullpen early as McNary was able to get some early separation from Sprague.
“We got a big group of competitive kids, and they’re always ready to go pitch number one. I was encouraged to see that they fed off each other. That kind of stuff is contagious. You find a barrel, the next guy finds a barrel and the next guy does a job,” said McNary Head Coach Jordan Keeker. “We’re playing for each other, so it was nice to see a strong, aggressive start where we set the tone.”
The Olys were just as scrappy however.
Cole Bartels, who came in an out into the third inning, settled the defense. Over the remainder of the game, Bartels held the Celtics scoreless. Matter-of-fact, Bartels threw a one-hitter in relief over four-and-two-third innings pitched coming out of the bullpen.
It allowed the bats to come alive, which they did in the bottom half of the third and fourth innings as Sprague pulled even with McNary at six going into the fifth inning to make it a whole different ball game.
“It was a little stressful. But I have confidence in this team, myself and everyone here. It was really fun. I had a great time,” said Bartels. “You just have to be confident. My defense was making plays. As long as I throw strikes, they’ll do a good job behind me.”
McNary, led by a complete game by Camden Sajovic, settled back in during the fifth inning after Sprague’s rally. They matched the Sprague defensive intensity with both teams trading zero’s in the fifth and sixth innings.
The Olympians hung a zero in the Top half of the seventh inning and hoped that the top of their line-up, which struggled throughout the game, could come in clutch.
VanKempen, who was Sprague’s number-two hitter, started the inning off with a single. VanKempen went 3-for-4 on the day with 3RBI’s and produced in the top half of the lineup for the Olys on this day. Sprague’s 1-4 hitters went 3-for-15 on the day, but a Parker Kruse walk allowed the bottom half of the line-up, their five-through-nine hitters and accounting for eight hits in the game, to try to win the game.
“We just had to be patient, get runners on and move runners over and just get the job done,” VanKempen said of the inning. “We knew we had to get the job done, fight the adversity, fight back and find our pitch to get the job done after last week. We just wanted to come out here and start the series off strongly.”
Sprague had runners on first and second after Kruse’s walk. Jaxson Redel singled to load the bases with one out. Redel matched VanKempen with a team-high three hits in the game. Grant Moyer followed and put the ball in play with a fly-out. VanKempen tagged up and beat the throw home, to clinch the 7-6 victory and to complete the comeback.
The two teams will meet again Wednesday in Keizer for Game 2 of the series. Sprague will look to win the series outright while the Celtics will look to even up the series after the heartbreaking defeat at Sprague on Wednesday.
“IIt was a good game all the way through. We certainly pitched well enough to win, but unfortunately we need to play better defensively if we want to beat good teams. A lot of these guys are learning that. We just need to put our nose back down and go back to the grind and in less than 24 hours we’ll get to compete again,” said Keeker. “We’ll take it one game at a time. Tonight, we didn’t get the result we wanted. The sun will come up tomorrow and we’ll be ready for pitch number one again to play the best that we can.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
