Batting out of the No. 4 spot in Philomath High’s lineup, center fielder Caleb Babcock came into the final game of the Sweet Home series on Thursday in a bit of a hitting funk. Over the first two games against the Huskies, the Warrior sophomore had gone just 1 for 6.
Babcock broke out in a big way in Philomath’s 14-4 win in front of the home fans at Terry Stephenson Field by going 3 for 3 with a triple, double and single to get his batting average up to .333 for the season.
“I’ve been making contact,” Babcock said about his plate appearances, “and now they’re just dropping.”
Babcock tripled in the first inning and scored on a wild pitch to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead. His double in the third drove in a run for a 4-0 advantage. And in the fifth with Philomath clinging to a 5-4 lead, he followed a Kayson Olsen double with a single to third to help the team establish momentum on the way to a nine-run frame that would end the game on the 10-run mercy rule.
“We knew we had to bounce back and get the bats going a little bit,” Babcock said.
The victory was Philomath’s seventh straight, the last loss coming back on March 26 in the Newport tournament.
“Our approaches are different and we’re setting the ball, hitting the ball and we’re making a lot less errors,” Babcock said about the winning streak.
Philomath (8-4 overall, 3-0 Oregon West) led 5-0 through three innings. A Sweet Home error in the outfield with two outs in the third led to a Warrior run and then the team added two more on back-to-back doubles by Babcock and junior Brady Russell.
But the Huskies were able to bounce back in the fourth and put a four-spot on the scoreboard. Sweet Home strung together some hits and took advantage of a couple of Philomath errors to make things interesting.
“I got after the guys a little bit, challenged them a little bit there between the top and bottom of the fifth and to their credit, they responded,” PHS coach Levi Webber said. “They came out and were outstanding with great at-bats, great approach, barreled some balls up, played the game how we expect to play.”
The game remained 5-4 into the bottom of the fifth when Philomath slammed the door with nine runs. Olsen, Babcock, Russell, junior Grant Niemann and senior Kash Lindsey had consecutive hits to produce four runs for a 9-4 lead. Three straight walks drove in another run and then senior Mason Stearns connected on a bases-loaded triple to center field for a 13-4 lead — all of the damage done with no outs.
The game ended on the 10-run rule when Olsen hit a sacrifice fly to left field to get Stearns home from third.
“Earlier in the season, I don’t think we respond like that,” Webber said. “But right now, we’re starting to figure some things out. It’s good to see us respond that way.”
In addition to Babcock’s performance, junior Logan Matthews went 2 for 2 and Russell finished 2 for 3. Matthews put in a complete game on the mound with seven hits and no walks allowed with three strikeouts over five innings.
Sophomore Cohen Gutierrez went the distance at pitcher for the Huskies (2-10, 0-3) and was his team’s top hitter with a 2-for-3 effort.
Philomath will next play Stayton with away games on Monday and Thursday and a home game on Wednesday. The Eagles are off to an 0-3 start in league play following their series against Newport, although they were competitive in two of the three games.
“They graduated a bunch of dudes but Steve (Salisbury) does a good job with them so you know they’re going to be well-coached and play hard so we’ll have our hands full,” Webber said. “We’ve got to make sure we show up next week and go win another series.”
