By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
INDEPENDENCE, Ore.– This run has started to feel like that run of 2019 for the Central Baseball team.
The belief in themselves. Their talents on the diamond with their offense and their defense. The Panthers are just rolling as they’re just one game away from returning to the 5A State Title Game for the first time since that 2019 season.
To get to this point however, Central had to get past a familiar foe in Mid-Willamette Conference foe Silverton on Friday night at home.
And the Panthers spent no time getting down to work.
Santi Alarcon hit a three-run Home Run in the bottom half of the first inning to give Central a 3-0 lead. Joe Mendazona, in his second long outing of the season on the bump, held the Foxes bats to one run going into the bottom half of the fourth inning.
It was 3-1 Central at this point.
“I can’t say enough about that swing right there. (Alarcon) has been absolutely grinding recently with his swing and we keep telling him that it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen and not even with the Home Run piece, but just squaring up with the baseball,” said Central Head Coach Ben Kramer. “To jump out to a 3-0 lead against a really, really good ballclub in Silverton. He set the tone for us and Joe on the mound, he did his thing and competed really, really well. Some things we really need to clean up towards the end of the game…and not playing as clean as we need to, but offensively I’m really happy.”
The offense really put Central fans in a good mood in the bottom half of the fourth inning.
In front of a packed crowd that lined around the outside fence, the Panthers wheeled off nine unanswered runs to take a 12-1 lead and came to within one out of ending the game in five innings by way of the mercy rule. That was when the Foxes, with their last gasp, responded.
They drew on their patience on the plate to draw the walks and slowly built up Mendazona’s pitch count, getting the Panther junior to exit the game. Silverton saw three different arm’s in the frame, and by the end of the inning, they trailed 12-6 to Central.
“We didn’t want it to end so soon and we didn’t want to go out like that. Just keep fighting every pitch and good things will happen,” said Silverton Senior Grayson Rugg, who drove in two runs in the game.
For a young team, Silverton that is, to even get to the playoffs was an accomplishment, let lone win a ballgame to get to the 5A State Quarterfinals.
“It’s pretty cool. We had some really good seniors last year and there’s only two this year, so just filling that void as a senior this year and a lot of expectations. We had a good season, these juniors and sophomores, they’re going to fill some big shoes,” said Rugg.
The Foxes made Central refocus and put the pressure on them to finish the job, something that the Panthers did. They settled back in. Their offense added one more run in the bottom half of the fifth, their defense too got back into a groove, pitching a shutout inning in the sixth before their offense scored three more runs to close out the game. Taking the MWC-rematch, playoff edition, 16-6 in six innings.
“That’s what we do, we’re so close, we’re so tight as a group,” starts Central’s JT Girod. “There wasn’t any pressure. We know that the guys are going to pick each other up, we know that the guys are going to make plays. We know we got to do it, we know we can do it and just re-group as a team.”
The Panthers will host Ridgeview on Tuesday for a place in the 5A State Championship Game on June 6.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
