The Philomath High School baseball team posted an 8-0 shutout over Santiam Christian Tuesday at Terry Stephenson Field in the first of two games this week to give the Warriors extra game action in preparation for the state playoffs.
Senior Mason Stearns threw a five-hitter, walked just one batter and struck out five in six innings of work. Junior Joe Barnes threw the seventh and had one strikeout.
The Warriors scored twice in the first inning for an early lead. Caleb Babcock hit a one-out single to drive in Logan Matthews, who had opened the game by drawing a walk. Babcock later scored on a passed ball.
In the third, Philomath added another run when Stearns scored on a wild pitch. Stearns had opened the inning with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball and stole third to put himself in position to score.
The Warriors took a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning. Kayson Olsen opened with a double and came around to score when the next batter, Kash Lindsey, singled him in. Two more runs were scored later in the inning with two outs. Stearns hit a single to right field to get AJ Altishin home and then Grant Niemann hit a single to center to drive in Wylie Griffiths. Altishin had reached earlier on a single and Griffiths got on base when hit by a pitch.
Philomath’s last two runs were scored in the sixth inning. Matthews opened with a double and later scored on a Babcock double. Brady Russell drove in Stearns, who was hit by a pitch to get on base, for the eighth run.
Four PHS players had multiple hits in the victory — Lindsey went 2 for 2, Stearns 2 for 3, Altishin 2 for 3 and Babcock 2 for 4.
The Warriors (18-7) are scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Banks, which finished the regular season in Class 3A ranked No. 2 with a 21-4 record.
