Philomath High senior Joe Barnes definitely enjoys the feeling of watching an opposing batter walk back to their dugout after a strikeout. It happened 16 times in the team’s 5-1 home victory Wednesday over Cascade.
In a dominating performance that also included no walks, Barnes was just four outs away from throwing a no-hitter.
Gallery: PHS baseball vs. Cascade (April 30, 2025)
A collection of photos from Philomath High School’s 5-1 baseball win over Cascade on Wednesday.
“Only two hits in the game and it felt good,” Barnes said afterward. “I was just confident up there. I knew I could trust my defense, so I was just fine out there.”
Barnes faced 24 batters and threw 96 pitches in a complete-game performance.
“The thing I’m most proud about is he went seven innings,” PHS coach Levi Webber said. “Obviously, the 16 strikeouts are pretty impressive but to not allow a walk over seven innings for him is really good.”
The only base runners in the game were the two late hits and the game’s leadoff batter who reached on an error. In addition to allowing no walks, Barnes also didn’t hit any batters.
“Joe was awesome, just outstanding with the way he competed in the strike zone and didn’t try to do too much,” Webber said. “When he gets himself in a little bit of trouble or tries to overthrow, he’a little high with his fastball or spikes his breaking ball but today, he just trusted his stuff. He found a good rhythm and just pounded the strike zone. When he does that, he’s going to get the results like he did.”
Barnes has come close to throwing no-hitters on previous occasions and he took this latest attempt into the sixth. Cascade sophomore Hans Kamm wrecked it, however, when he snuck a two-out single through to left field. Then the Cougars avoided the shutout when junior Cole Draper tripled down the left-field line.
Philomath’s pitching in the Cascade series so far has been exceptional. Junior teammate Caleb Babcock threw a no-hitter in Monday’s 20-0 win on the road over the Cougars.
“If you go 10-plus innings of hitless baseball over two games, you feel pretty good about yourself,” said Webber, referring to five innings of no-hit ball by both Babcock and Barnes. “The pitching staff, especially those two guys but Wylie (Griffith) as well, they have just done a really good job of pounding the strike zone, putting the ball over the plate, making big pitches when we need them and either allowing their defense to play behind them or executing pitches we have opportunities to strike guys out.”
Barnes has three pitches that he goes to while mowing down opposing batters. He throws in the upper 80s with a fastball that can be intimidating to a high school hitter and also throws an effective slider. He can also throw a changeup although it’s a pitch that he rarely uses.
“I was ready to play,” Barnes said. “I had fun out there and didn’t worry about anything else.”
Griffith will get the start in Thursday’s series finale at Cascade.
Cascade threw its top pitcher, junior Slade Hudson, in the middle game of this series. He held the Warriors to six hits while allowing one earned run and two walks with 11 strikeouts — not a bad stat line considering Philomath came into the contest averaging 15.4 runs per game.
PHS broke through for a run in the third with the help of a Cascade miscue. Junior Rocco De La Rosa reached on an error and ended up scoring on a Babcock single. Senior Grant Niemann also singled but Hudson worked out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
In the fourth, Barnes helped his own cause by hitting a dinger to right field.
“I just swung and it went over — that was a good feeling,” Barnes said when asked about the homer, which was his first-ever in high school baseball.
The Warriors added another run to their lead in the fifth. Niemann reached on an error and later ended up a third when he stole second and advanced another base with an errant throw by the catcher. He scored when Cascade’s pitcher was called for a balk.
After Cascade scored its run in the sixth, Philomath countered with two insurance runs in the bottom half. Sophomore AJ Altishin and both reached on infield singles and Cascade errors and a wild pitch contributed to both of them scoring.
Barnes ended the game by striking out two of the last three batters he faced.
Webber said the pitching has been a bright spot so far this season.
“This is the first league game where we haven’t scored in double digits, you know, so everybody sees the offense (performing well),” Webber said. “But the pitching is what has been our North Star and what’s going to keep us going.”
Philomath remains unbeaten in the Oregon West Conference and extended its win streak to nine.
“This seems like a really good team,” said Barnes, who plans to play another summer of American Legion baseball before heading north to Centralia (Washington) College, which is situated along the I-5 corridor about halfway between Portland and Seattle. “This year, we are playing like a team, like a family, no arguments. We make some mistakes but we always bounce back and push those mistakes into the past.”
After wrapping up the Cascade series this week, the Warriors will prepare for a showdown next week against Newport, a longtime baseball rival that is also unbeaten in the conference so far this season.
