Junior Brady Russell’s two-run double in the sixth inning and sophomore Caleb Babcock’s shutdown relief appearance on the mound helped the Philomath High baseball team to a 7-5 victory Thursday over Cascade at Terry Stephenson Field.
With the victory, the Warriors sweep the series and improve to 9-0 in the Oregon West Conference, tied for first with North Marion.
Philomath (14-4 overall) overcame deficits of 4-0 and 5-1 to notch the win, the team’s 13th straight.
The comeback started in the bottom of the fourth with two outs. Junior Logan Matthews worked a walk and came around to score when senior Mason Stearns reached on an error. The Warriors added two more in the fifth — first on a bases-loaded balk and then on an error.
In the sixth, Stearns opened the inning with a walk and came all the way around to score on a double by junior Grant Niemann, the play extended by an error in the outfield. That tied the score, 5-5.
Babcock followed with a bunt single to the third-base side to advance Niemann to third. After a strikeout, Russell stepped up and hit his double to center field to bring in Niemann and Babcock for a 7-5 lead.
Babcock struck out the side in the seventh for the win. In 3-2/3 innings, Babcock was dominant with no hits and one walk allowed to go along with eight strikeouts against the 12 batters he faced. Matthews got the start and went 3-1/3 innings, allowing six hits, no walks and four earned runs with three strikeouts.
Stearns scored Philomath’s first run in the third inning on a wild pitch.
The Warriors had just one hit through the first four innings against Cascade starter JJ Herrera, a sophomore who struck out six but had some control issues with seven walks. The Cougars brought in sophomore Ethan Hendricks in the fifth and Philomath had better luck by scoring five runs.
Niemann went 2 for 2 and Russell was 2 for 3 with the team’s lone two RBIs in the game.
Hendricks went 3 for 4 for Cascade (2-15 overall, 1-8 Oregon West). The Cougars lost each of the three games vs. Philomath by an average of three runs.
Philomath will finish Oregon West Conference play with two huge series over the next two weeks. The Warriors will play at third-place Newport on Monday and Thursday with a game vs. the Cubs at home on Wednesday. Newport (10-7, 5-4) will try to rebound after dropping three straight to North Marion.
