By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
CORVALLIS, Ore.– Toledo’s Braden Marthaller proved that a kid from a 2A school can compete with the 5A kids.
The First Team All-State Infielder at 2A/1A showcased his pitching ability as through four innings against Area-3 foe Corvallis, he held the Marketmen scoreless with four strikeouts and four hits. And he picked up two quick outs to start the fifth inning. The incoming senior is one of a handful of Boomer players on the roster this Summer with the Mid-Coast Dungies of Newport.
“I think it’s going to help a lot…we got four guys from Toledo on this team and we’re looking to take this, what we learned from here and take it back to Toledo and go win State,” said Marthaller. “We’re going to take the positives (into Saturday) like the pitching, I think we’re going to pitch a lot better tomorrow. We just need something to prove.”
But then. The Marketmen found a small window against Marthaller that they were able to take advantage of.
With the top of their lineup coming up, they were able to string together a Ben Weiss single and a Caleb Babcock triple into runs. Weiss drove home Quinn Sissel, who started the inning with a single before back-to-back outs, and Babcock’s triple allowed Weiss to score from first.
And what was a 0-0 game going into the bottom half of the fifth inning, was now a 2-0 ballgame going into the sixth inning.
“The big thing for us was the two runs in the fifth inning, that kind of kicked us awake. We weren’t coasting, but we weren’t in it. Coach called us in and we had a meeting, we came out with a better intention. We got that first pitcher (Marthaller) out of the game in the sixth inning and scored a few runs. It was a really big energy thing,” said Weiss.
The duo of Weiss and Babcock accounted for five hits and five runs in the Marketmen’s 8-0 victory over the Dungies in the 42nd-Annual Mickey Riley Invitational. Weiss, a Corvallis player, had three hits and three RBI’s and Babcock from Philomath contributed two hits and two RBI’s in the win. The Marketmen will play Grants Pass on Saturday night at 7pm.
Chris Jacobson led the Dungies with three hits in the game as they’ll play Wasilla Road AA at 10am on Saturday morning at Corvallis High School. Marthaller went five innings with four strikeouts.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
