By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The North Salem D1 Baseball team, the Bandidos, came around strongly in their second game against the Post 58 Single-A American Legion squad on Tuesday.
Anchored by Gideon Heard through the opening four innings and Manny Baldovinos the final two, the Bandidos kept the Post 58 offense in check.. The North Salem squad had held the Mac’s scoreless until the sixth inning and held them to three hits through five innings.
The Bandidos led 1-0 going into the bottom half of the fifth inning at Barrick City Field in Salem. A big difference compared to Thursday’s game that saw Post 58 taking the game 9-0.
It was a change in their mental approach that helped them see what they’re capable of to build from going into the remainder of the Summer, it’s just a matter of polishing the little things and they’ll be golden.
“Just our mentality. I think we were just locked in today,” said Heard, who struck out four batters in four innings pitching. “I think it’s just having a better approach in the clutch. We can get guys on base, then we can capitalize, just having a better approach.”
For Post 58, Tuesday’s game showed what they are capable of as well. They could win by a large margin sure, but against North Salem on this day, they showed to themselves that they were able to grind out one of those gritty victories as well.
They tied the game up at one in the bottom half of the fifth inning off a Callen DuLong single. Despite playing at North Salem, they switched destinations with Post 58 being the home team. It was 1-1 at this point going into the seventh inning.
Post 58, which had been clutched all game despite giving up a second inning run off a passed ball, clutched up again with their sixth shutout inning of the game. The Woodburn-based Legion team loaded up the bases with three walks before Mason Pickett hit a single to clinch the 2-1 victory on Tuesday.
“To be able to battle back from that was pretty nice, it was huge,” said DuLong. “The defense was definitely there. They showed up as a whole different team, they were like ‘you got to beat us this time’, so we had to put in the work. The bats showed up late but, they showed up.”
DuLong led the Post 58 offense with two hits and drove in a run. Post 58 will begin a league series with Central on Friday while North Salem will be in Mount Angel to play Kennedy on Thurday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
