By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
AURORA, Ore.– The Post 58 Single-A squad found a way on Thursday night at North Marion High School against The Berries in American Legion Single-A Action.
After a stalemate through the opening three innings of the game, Post 58 scored four runs in the Top half of the third inning, taking a 4-0 going into the bottom half of the frame. They were able to time out Jaxson Peirce at this point and forced The Berries to get into the bullpen first in the game.
But, the arm that came out of the bullpen, Ryder Richards, was able to slow down the Post 58 bats. And it gave The Berries an opportunity to slowly time out Peyton Alloway (St. Paul), eventually doing so in the bottom half of the fifth inning.
The Berries pulled even with the Post 58 squad thanks to a four run inning and forced the Post 58 squad to go to their bullpen, turning to Jonathan Sosa Perez (McKay) during that fourth inning rally by The Berries.
“It’s huge, it’s a good experience for the younger guys…to go down early against one of the tougher team’s we faced, it’s pretty important to build that fight in us,” said Richards.
And fought both team’s did.
No one scored in the sixth or the seventh. The Berries had a chance to win it in regulation, having the game-winning run 90-feet away after taking advantage of a series of errors. Post 58 found a way to shut the door and forced extra’s as Sosa Perez forced a ground-ball that was fielded by Isaac Bailey, who turned it into an out at first.
“It’s really fun to really compete…you’re competing the whole game and fight hard just to get that little edge above the other team,” Richards said.
“The Berries are a very good team, but we played together and we played good,” adds Sosa Perez.
Richards exited the game and it looked as if The Berries were about to shut the door on the Post 58 offense once more, until Isaac Bailey came up to the plate. The incoming McNary sophomore helped the Post 58 squad find that one spark that either team were hoping to find at this point. After getting a base-runner on off an error before surrendering two outs, Bailey ripped a single to help put Post 58 ahead that drove Joseph Babson (McKay) home from second. Babson got on with an error at first to lead-off the eighth inning.
It was one of three hits and three runs that Bailey collected in the game, and what followed was a hit parade of sorts Cyler Montgomery (McNary) and Mason Warthen (Silverton) followed Bailey’s RBI hit with hits of their own, turning a 4-4 tie into an 7-4 lead going into the bottom half of the eighth inning.
“It was big. It was a big momentum shift for us. That one inning, when they scored all of those runs, it gave them a huge momentum shift and me getting that hit was very big. Getting us all fired up and it went on as a rally, it was feeding off the energy, one hit after another,” said Bailey.
And fed off the energy they did. What felt like dying embers of the momentum that they had to start the game, that three-run rally breathed life into those dying embers and revived the fire of momentum with Post 58 as they turned a three-up, three-down inning to close out the 7-4 victory on the road.
Sosa Perez and Alloway each struck out four batters each, both pitching four innings, in the victory. Richards led The Berries pitching staff with five strikeouts and drove in two runs in the game, six different Berries hitters collected a hit in the game.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
