Philomath High School’s baseball team had its sights set on winning the Oregon West Conference title entering this week’s three-game series against first-place North Marion.
Losses of 4-0 Wednesday and 9-4 Thursday have eliminated the Warriors from achieving that goal. Now, Philomath will try to salvage at least one game from the series and ruin North Marion’s attempt at a perfect run through the league.
The two teams will meet for a third time at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Gallery: PHS baseball vs. North Marion (May 9, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High School’s 9-4 baseball loss at home vs. North Marion on Thursday.
“When you play one of the better teams in the state coming down the stretch … those are the types of teams that you’re going to be seeing,” PHS coach Levi Webber said, referring to No. 1 North Marion. “Once you get into the playoffs, everybody’s good and you can’t make mistakes and allow them to have extra opportunities and you’ve got to take advantage of yours.”
North Marion trailed 3-2 after the first inning in Thursday’s game but chased Warriors starter Joe Barnes out of the game with patience at the plate. The Huskies went up 4-3 in the second and then scored in all but one inning the rest of the way to slowly pull away for what ended up as a five-run win.
“When you play a team like that, you have to play really well in all facets — you’ve got to pitch, you’ve got to play defense, you’ve got to hit and score runs when you have opportunities,” Webber said. “Outside of the first inning, we didn’t do much of that.”
North Marion (21-2 overall, 14-0 Oregon West) scored twice in the top of the first. Cole Hammack had a one-run double to left and Landon Fowler followed with a one-run single to center.
In the bottom half, the Warriors responded. Leadoff batter Logan Williams reached on an error and Mason Stearns followed with a two-run shot to right-center. North Marion starter Carter Reilly had thrown just two pitches and the game was tied.
Grant Niemann then reached on an error on a poor throw to first base and advanced to second to immediately give Philomath another runner in scoring position. Caleb Babcock grounded out to the second-base side to move Niemann to third with one out.
After Brady Russell worked a walk, Kayson Olsen hit a grounder to third that was deep enough to get Niemann home for a 3-2 lead. Russell had moved to second but was stranded there with the inning ending on a lineout to left field.
Barnes struggled finding the strike zone in the top of the second. After walking five batters in the inning, Webber took the ball and handed it over to Wylie Griffith. The number of free passes went down but the Huskies found other ways to score, adding a run in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth for a 8-3 advantage.
Williams entered at pitcher in the sixth and for the first time in the game, the Huskies were kept off the scoreboard. North Marion added another run to its lead in the top of the seventh, however, and then Philomath finished with a run in the bottom half on a one-run single by Stearns.
“Defensively, I thought we played OK, we weren’t terrible,” Webber said. “Pitching-wise, it wasn’t our best showing. We didn’t do a very good job of throwing strikes and working ahead. After the first inning offensively, we had some opportunities a couple of different times and we let them off the hook.”
Stearns had an exceptional game at the plate by going 3 for 4 with three RBIs. Matthews finished 2 for 4.
Dawson Schrenk, Cole Hammock and Jaxon DeFabis each had two hits for the Huskies. Schrenk drove in three and seven of the nine batters in the lineup had at least one RBI.
After the series wraps up Saturday, Philomath will play a home game against Santiam Christian at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and a road game at Banks at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The first round of the 4A playoffs is scheduled for May 21.
This weekend, however, the Warriors will try to see how they can fare against a team that will likely be among the favorites to win the state title.
“It’s a good team to see where we’re at, to see how close we are in some things,” Webber said, “but also to see obviously some things that we need to clean up and dial in before we get going in the playoffs.”
