Trotting in from left field to take over in the circle, Philomath softball freshman Hailey Smith faced a daunting task with Gaston threatening in a tight ballgame. The Greyhounds trailed the Warriors, 4-2, but had loaded the bases with no outs.
Bases loaded, no outs, no problem.
Gaston junior Kaelee Keller got into an 0-2 hole on the count with a couple of foul balls but connected on Smith’s third pitch. The ball went right into the glove of senior second baseman Laighla Hockema, who quickly threw to first to double off a base runner.
Gallery: PHS softball vs. Gaston (April 9, 2025)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 21-2 softball win over Gaston on Wednesday.
Smith followed by freezing the next batter with a strikeout looking.
The momentum carried over to the bottom half of the inning as Philomath scored 17 runs to defeat the visitors Wednesday in what turned out to be a rout, 21-2. The mercy rule kicked in after five innings. In an interesting twist, the game turned out to be the first home appearance for the Warriors after earlier contests were rained out.
“Most of the time if I don’t warm up properly, I need like an inning and then I’m like fire,” Smith said when asked about the relief appearance. “But I don’t care either way if I start or go in to help.”
Coach Kari Jaques knows what Smith is capable of doing in the circle.
“I coached her before we got here and she’s real solid and has a lot of confidence in herself,” Jaques said. “We all have confidence in her arm but we just want to make sure that we don’t have to rely on it.”
After the marathon bottom of the fourth, Smith picked right up where she left off struck out the side. And oh, by the way, she went 4 for 4 at the plate and drove in five runs.
“I feel like there’s a lot of positivity this year,” Smith said. “I didn’t really watch the games last year but there was one that I went to and I felt like they got down really fast. So I feel like this year, everyone just keeps bringing each other up.”
The Warriors improved to 6-3 with the win. Jaques alluded to the mental part of the game as a reason for the program’s quick turnaround after posting just one win in 2024.
“I think what they really like and what has been a big part of the program that we’ve started this year is having really high expectations,” Jaques said. “I think they’re really rolling with ‘this is what’s expected of me’ and they just go forward with it. They’re doing a great job.”
After giving up a run in the top of the first on a bases-loaded hit by pitch, the Warriors countered with a couple in the bottom half. Smith hit a one-out, one-run single to center to get the team on the scoreboard and then later scored herself on a wild pitch for the lead. In the second, Philomath added two more runs — sophomore Haley King scored on a wild pitch and senior Hannah Bennett forced another one in when she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Gaston, a Class 2A/1A team with a 1-3 record that hadn’t played since March 25, countered with a run in the third on an infield grounder that pushed a run to the plate. But that would be it for the Greyhounds with no hits or runs the rest of the way.
Philomath broke the game open with that huge fourth inning. The Warriors scored nine runs in the inning before Gaston could even record an out. Hockema, King and Kohler hit doubles, freshman Libby Kramer and King each had two-run singles and Smith picked up three more RBIs on a pair of hits.
In all, Philomath sent 22 batters to the plate in the inning.
“They were a little slower than I wanted to make adjustments at the plate but once they did, obviously it made a huge difference,” Jaques said. “The gloves are off for a lot of them … I’m giving them the leeway to kind of keep going with those things.”
Gaston’s pitchers did have control problems to help the PHS effort by issuing 16 walks in the shortened game. The Warriors scored their 21 runs on just 10 hits.
“We’re still figuring out how to have confidence in ourselves and so it’s something that’s building,” Jaques said.
King started at pitcher and in three innings, allowed two hits, two runs and three walks with two strikeouts. Smith’s two innings featured no hits, runs or walks allowed with four strikeouts.
Philomath is scheduled to play again Thursday with a trip to Molalla for a makeup game. The Indians come into the contest with a 4-3 record after falling at Astoria Wednesday, 8-0.
