In a key baseball showdown Wednesday with Oregon West Conference title implications on the line, North Marion outdueled Philomath, 4-0, to clinch at least a tie for first place.
The Huskies and Warriors are scheduled to meet two more times with both games in Philomath — those scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday and 1 p.m. Saturday. Both teams have already clinched automatic berths in the Class 4A playoffs. North Marion, ranked No. 1 in 4A, leads the league at 13-0 with the 10th-ranked Warriors two games back at 11-2.
In Wednesday’s game on the Aurora-area campus, errors ended up costing the Warriors with all of North Marion’s runs being unearned. The home team jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Leadoff batter Carter Reilly struck out but reached on a passed ball. Jayden Ohlman followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Reilly to second. Dawson Schrenk then hit a single to left with Reilly held up at third. Cole Hammack drove in the first run on a sacrifice fly to center field. Another run came in when Landon Fowler reached on an infield single to the shortstop.
The game remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth. Philomath was unable to generate much of anything offensively against Schrenk, North Marion’s pitcher who finished with 10 strikeouts and no walks.
Kash Lindsey led off the third with a single but was stranded. Brady Russell and Kayson Olsen both had singles as the first two batters in the fifth but again were stranded. And in the sixth, Mason Stearns hit a one-out double and stole third but was not able to make it home.
In the sixth, Hammock hit a one-out double and later scored on an infield error with two outs. Jaxon DeFabis followed with a one-run single for a 4-0 Huskies lead.
In the top of the seventh, Olsen hit a one-out single but the game ended on a strikeout and fly out to right.
Stearns had a stellar performance at pitcher for the Warriors. In his six innings, the PHS senior allowed five hits, no earned runs and two walks with five strikeouts. Offensively, Olsen went 2 for 3.
