With an Oregon West Conference baseball title on the line this week, Newport evened its series with Philomath with a 7-2 victory Wednesday at Terry Stephenson Field.
The Warriors (17-3 overall, 10-1 league) will now travel to Newport Thursday for a 5 p.m. game that could go a long way toward deciding the league conference champion.
Gallery: PHS baseball vs. Newport (May 7, 2025)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 7-2 baseball loss to Newport on Wednesday.
“I think our guys have enough confidence in their ability and what we can do if we play well over there,” PHS coach Levi Webber said after a postgame chat with his players. “We already went over there and won once this week so we just need to make sure we show up and get after it in the right way and hopefully come out of there with a win.”
Newport (17-4, 10-1) regrouped after a 6-3 home loss to the Warriors behind a strong pitching and hitting performance from Tyler Mattson. The Cubs senior threw six strong innings and allowed just four hits and two runs with three walks and eight strikeouts. At the plate, Mattson went 3 for 4 and drove in three runs.
“You’ve got an opportunity at home to put yourself in a good spot and you kind of let one slip through because you don’t play real well, so it’s frustrating,” Webber said. “But we’ve got tomorrow and that’s the beautiful thing about baseball, man, especially this time of year. We’ve got tomorrow and that’s all we need.”
Newport never trailed in the game and came out of the gate with a run in the top of the first when sophomore Collin Fierro reached home on an infield single by Mattson. The Warriors did come back with a run in the bottom half on a double by senior Kayson Olsen that plated senior Grant Niemann, who had earlier walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch to get into scoring position.
Newport added runs in the second and fifth before the Warriors scored their second run to get back to within 3-2. In the bottom of the fifth, junior Caleb Babcock slammed a one-out double to left to drive in junior Rocco De La Rosa. But Philomath wasn’t able to get the tying run home with the inning ending on a ground out to the shortstop and a strikeout.
The Cubs pulled away in the sixth with three more runs and then added another in the seventh.
Sports roundup: Sweet Home outlasts Philomath in softball marathon
In a key softball battle in Oregon West Conference play Wednesday, Sweet Home outlasted Philomath, 11-10, in a game that went 10 innings. The Huskies (14-7 overall, 6-5 Oregon West) scored a run in the top of the 10th and then got out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the bottom half to…
PHS starter Joe Barnes, a senior, pitched into the sixth inning and allowed five hits, three earned runs and seven walks with nine strikeouts.
“I thought Joe did a good job of competing,” Webber said. “I think we let him down a little bit (defensively) in that sixth inning.”
Philomath committed two errors in the inning on a fly ball to left that appeared to may have been lost in the sun and on a throw to first base after an exceptional stop in the 6 hole.
“It’s those plays that you’ve got to make if you’re going to win games like this,” Webber said.
Three of Philomath’s four hits were doubles against Newport’s Mattson, who threw 105 pitches and faced 26 batters.
“I don’t feel like we came out and played our best game today … certainly not our best effort since we got in the league — especially offensively,” Webber said. “Today it was just one of those days and give the Mattson kid a ton of credit; he did a great job of competing in the zone and keeping them off-balance.”
Newport snapped Philomath’s 11-game win streak. On Monday, the Warriors had snapped Cubs’ 11-game win streak.
“I think we got outside of ourselves a little bit and tried to do a little bit too much and just didn’t take advantage of the few opportunities we had to get something going offensively,” Webber said.
Niemann relieved Barnes with one out in the sixth inning. After a runner reached base on an error, Philomath pulled off a double play to get out of the inning with a pop out to senior first baseman Brady Russell, who then fired a strike to home plate where sophomore catcher Colvin Henley tagged out a base runner trying to score.
The winner of Thursday’s game will take sole possession of first place but afterward, another week of regular-season games remains — Philomath to face North Marion and the Cubs to battle Cascade.
“Hopefully it serves as a little bit of a wakeup call,” Webber said about Wednesday’s loss. “We’ve got to make sure we don’t let one turn into two or three or four (losses); we’ve got to make sure we hop right back and right the ship.”
The coach believes he has the athletes who can perform with their backs to the wall.
“Watching them compete in all the sports — football, basketball, wrestling, baseball, soccer — I mean, everything these kids do, they compete,” he said. “They’ve been through battles in the playoffs and they understand what’s at stake. So I have a lot of confidence that they’re going to bounce back and respond the right way.”
Newport 7, Philomath 2
Wednesday at Terry Stephenson Field, Philomath HS
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E Newport (17-4, 10-1) 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 7 8 1 Philomath (17-3, 10-1) 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 4 3
Mattson, Bruns (7) and Langeliers; Barnes, Niemann (6) and Niemann, Henley (6). W — Mattson. L — Barnes. 2B — Russell, Babcock, Olsen, Olivera, Bruns, Barber, Mattson.
Junior varsity — Newport 7, Philomath 5.