By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ALBANY, Ore.– All the West Albany Single-A American Legion squad needed on Thursday evening against Post 58 was one inning. And that one inning came early enough in the game that they were able to work the lead and lived putting the pressure on the Post 58 Single-A squad en route to a 9-6 victory.
That one inning, a six-run second inning, put West Albany out in front 7-2. It gave the home squad the momentum they needed to work with on both sides of the ball. Cam Nelson pitched comfortably while his offense was able to match run-by-run with Post 58 into the latter part of the game.
“After that inning, you just feed off it and we just take it to the field really easily and you just keep it going. Then you have a good flow out there offense and defense,” said Nelson. “We worked really hard for this all season, preparing for this game. We really wanted to win this game and we did.”
But Post 58 made West Albany work for it however. They pitched shutouts in the fifth and sixth innings to keep it a 9-4 ball-game going into the seventh, and similar to how they did against the Roseburg Pepsi Caps on Saturday, they rallied.
Post 58 got two on with one out before bringing them home to make it a 9-6 ballgame, but the squad just ran out of gas down the stretch as West Albany was able to close out the victory as West Albany punched their ticket to the American Legion Single-A State Playoffs for the second-straight year.
“It feels good, we’re a young group. The kids we had last year were a good group too and this group I feel like we’re a lot better, we have good chemistry and it feels good to go back-to-back,” said Nelson.
West Albany will close out the regular season at home against Lebanon on Friday before traveling to Lebanon on Monday.
Post 58 will close out the season Sunday with a doubleheader with Lincoln High School at St. Paul High School. The doubleheader will give the squad one last opportunity to showcase their ability before closing out an otherwise strong year for the Single-A program.
“For us, it’s doing the little things right and I don’t think we did a lot of little things right today. We still hit the ball, we still field the ball, but it’s about combining all those things to one good game and I don’t think we did that well,” said Post 58 Head Coach Bo Lane. “And I think that’s the good thing about this team…we, for the most part, do the little things right. Today was the exception to that and I think going into Lincoln on Sunday will be good because it’ll give us a chance to prove that this is a good team. They hit the ball well, they field the ball well, we pitch really well and Sunday will be a good opportunity for us to redeem ourselves.”
Maddox Joynt led West Albany with two hits and drove in two runs. Nelson struck out four batters with Caleb Fifhause striking out another three in relief for West Albany. Callen DuLong (McNary) led Post 58 with two hits and drove in a run with Colbey Whelden (Cascade) striking out three pitching in relief.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
