By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– On his Senior Night, West Salem’s Conrad Sotelo pitched an absolute gem against South Medford.
He pounded the zone, and Sotelo’s defense backed him up. He overcame the walks and the hit-batters, staying focused through it to work out of the jam. And the result was a Complete Game effort, throwing a two-hitter where the Panthers only got their hits in the first and seventh innings and a 2-1 victory to close out the four-year homestand for Sotelo.
It was the past four years, and all the hard work that he and his senior teammates had put in that led to this.
“It’s just a lot of hard work through the four-years. I don’t know, I just had to make it happen tonight. My stuff was there, my defense backed me up really well,” said Sotelo. “The ride to this point, we’ve had a kind of tough four years to this point, but to be able to stick out with these guys has been pretty fun. I think our team unity has helped put together games like this to win
South Medford struck first in the top of the fifth inning, using a delayed double steal of second and home to take a 1-0 lead. The Panthers capitalized on an error, two stolen bases and a hit batter to set up the run.
But then, West Salem strung together a strong bottom half of the fifth to take a 2-1 lead. Layton Voves started the inning with a single, Tommy Kenny got on by error two batters later. That error allowed Kenny and Jackson Olson, who was pinch running for Voves, to get into scoring position on second and third.
The Titans cashed in. Andrew Blair drove in the tying run with a single and the go-ahead run came soon after when Kenny took home.
“The two runs for us in that one inning was really big for us. It was a big momentum shift for us, it was really big for us and it gave me confidence going back out there,” said Sotelo.
Sotelo only surrendered two baserunners over the final two innings, one off a hit-batter and another off a single as West Salem closed out the home victory . The Titans will head to Medford to play North Medford on Thursday to close out the season and are looking to carry this momentum down in Southern Oregon.
“Hopefully we can ride it out pretty well,” said Sotelo.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
