By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ST. Paul, Ore.– For one last time, the Post 58 Single-A squad went to work.
And though it wasn’t the ending to the season that they wanted, they did work and made the Everett Street Mechanics American Legion Squad (Lincoln/Wells High School) work for the doubleheader sweep on Sunday afternoon at St. Paul High School.
The Mechanics took Game 1 11-5 , setting the tone early in the opening game of the day. Game 2 however, it was a little more competitive.
The St. Paul duo of Peyton Alloway and Jack Gregory was the starting battery to the day. It resembled that of the Spring where the two helped the Buckaroos to a 15-8 record in the stacked 2A/1A Classification.
It was 0-0 through the opening two innings between the two squads.
“It was the best. I got to come home with my catcher with me too, Jack, it’s nice to be home and be on my own mound for once and just deal,” said Alloway. “I’ve never done (American Legion Baseball) before and I’m glad I was able to do it with these bunch of guys, it was a blast. I’m glad I could find myself with guys that worked hard, they put everything out there. We just blended as a team really well and from the get-go.”
Alloway went four innings, striking out four batters in the season finale, closing out his first year in American Legion Baseball.
Post 58 saw their Portland opposition plate four runs in the top half of the third inning, only to respond with a three-run inning of their own in the bottom half of the third inning. Post 58 trailed 4-3 after three innings and the score held the same going into the sixth.
But that was when the Mechanics began to pull away. They scored seven of the game’s final nine runs over the final two innings to take the game 11-5 as Post 58 closes out the season 11-8 on the year.
It was the second-straight year that they finished with a winning record after going 16-7 last season.
“We battled hard. We started the game off, we were swinging well and we were doing good. I feel like we went stagnant in the middle of the game, probably the fourth-fifth inning…it was tough that we couldn’t get the ‘W’ in the last season game,” starts Silverton’s Derrick Eckis. “But we all ended the season, becoming friends. It was a good season for us. This one loss doesn’t define us as a team and I feel like we did pretty well as a program this year.”
Eckis collected three hits and drove in two runs in the doubleheader as the incoming Fox senior is optimistic this Summer setting himself up towards success with Silverton this next Spring.
“It’s going to help, getting those gametime reps so you’re staying on the ball, staying locked into the game. For me it helps a lot because you don’t go staigent not playing the game for a long time…me playing in the Summertime, it’s going to help me as a person and as a player to help Silverton trying to make the playoffs next year and hopefully succeed,” Eckis said.
Gregory and Trevor Grassham each collected three hits in the doubleheader.
