The Philomath softball team dug out of multiple deficits Friday afternoon at Warrior Field, sweeping visiting Marshfield 24-18 and 9-3 in a doubleheader that featured plenty of offense, free baserunning and late-game resilience.
The two teams combined for 42 runs, 29 hits and 22 walks in the opener alone.
Gallery: PHS softball vs. Marshfield (April 3, 2026)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s doubleheader softball sweep over Marshfield on Friday.
Philomath trailed 8-0 after two innings in Game 1, a hole that coach Kari Jaques said tested the team’s character.
“I was like, ‘OK guys, this is our chance to either keep fighting and come back or give it away,'” Jaques told her players. “And we fought all the way through the game — that was the best takeaway from it.”
The Warriors chipped away and were up 13-10 by the end of the third inning. But Marshfield later scored six runs in the top of the sixth to regain the lead, 18-16. In the bottom half, Philomath erupted for eight runs to take control for good.
Sophomore Libby Kramer tied the game with a run-scoring single to center field. Junior Sierra Skaggs then put a ball in play to score freshman Aniya Jaques to give Philomath the lead. Later in the inning, sophomore Natalie Muir capped the rally with a bases-loaded three-run double that pushed the lead to six.
“A lot of hitting, a lot of walks, it was just kind of all over the place, a couple of hit by pitches — just a lot of free bases,” Coach Jaques said. “But we did a really good job of taking advantage of those and doing steals and really moving around the bases.”
Sophomore pitcher Hailey Smith entered with two outs in the sixth for Philomath and retired the side in the seventh — striking out three of four batters — to close out the victory.
“I feel like at Newport, we struggled a little bit to come back together after we were down,” junior Riley Mason said, referring to 16-0 and 17-0 losses on March 23 in the Battle of the Beach tournament. “Today was a good example of us coming back after being down. We stuck together well and came back.”
Coach Jaques echoed that sentiment, drawing a clear contrast between those appearances.
“The difference between those games and these games is when we went down against those teams, we kind of rolled over,” she said. “So it was really important for them to show that they can come back and fight. And they did.”
Muir was the offensive standout in the opener, going 2 for 3 with a double, three walks and six RBIs. Junior Emily Burner, batting ninth, went 3 for 4 with a double and four RBIs. Skaggs added two hits and three RBIs. Every Philomath batter recorded at least one hit.
Junior Haley King started and pitched 5-2/3 innings, allowing 15 hits and seven walks with four strikeouts on 141 pitches before Smith took over. Smith allowed just one hit and one walk over 1-1/3 innings, striking out four, and was the pitcher of record.
Senior Mackenzie Fitzgerald-Thornton and sophomore Ava Aurdahl each had three hits to lead the Pirates. Sophomore Emma McGinness got the start at pitcher and went 2-1/3 innings, allowing two hits, 11 earned runs and 10 walks with two strikeouts. Fitzgerald-Thornton relieved in the fourth and in 3-2/3 innings of work allowed 11 hits, six earned runs and four walks with two strikeouts.
Game 2 was more straightforward. Philomath fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first before answering with three runs in the bottom half, then adding three more in the second. Mason highlighted the second inning with a two-run double that stretched the lead to 6-1.
The Pirates tried to claw their way back into the game with single runs in the third and fourth innings. Philomath put the game away with three more in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Muir and a two-RBI single by Aniya Jaques.
The game was called on a time limit after one pitch to begin the fifth. Coach Jaques confirmed that the result would stand.
Smith earned the win in both games. In the second game, she allowed two hits, one earned run and two walks with nine strikeouts in four innings. At the plate, Mason went 3 for 3 with two RBIs.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit to hit but we’ve been working a lot in practice on hitting so it’s just putting everything together,” Mason said. “Hitting went pretty well today.”
Muir, King and sophomore Rylee Martin each went 2 for 3 for the Warriors. Muir and Aniya Jaques each drove in two runs.
McGinness and sophomore Renee Anderson each threw two innings for the Pirates (2-4).
Philomath (3-2) will play three straight days next week, traveling to Country Christian on Wednesday and returning home Thursday and Friday to play Molalla and Yamhill-Carlton, the latter game rescheduled from a rainout earlier this week.
Friday, April 3, at Warrior Field, Philomath HS
GAME 1
Philomath 24, Marshfield 18
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 R H E Marshfield (2-3) 0 8 2 2 0 6 18 16 6 Philomath (2-2) 0 6 7 3 0 8 24 13 2
McGinness, Fitzgerald-Thornton (3) and Perez; King, Smith (6) and Mason. W — Smith. L — Fitzgerald-Thornton. 2B — Burner, Muir, Aurdahl.
GAME 2
Philomath 9, Marshfield 3
Team 1 2 3 4 R H E Marshfield (2-4) 1 0 1 3 3 2 2 Philomath (3-2) 3 3 0 3 9 10 1
Note: The game was stopped with no outs in the fifth inning on a time limit.
McGinness, Anderson (3) and Perez; Smith and Mason. W — Smith. L — McGinness. 2B — Mason.
