Philomath High’s softball team mustered just two hits and fell behind early Thursday afternoon in a 16-0 loss to Sweet Home in an Oregon West Conference matchup at Warrior Field. The game was stopped after three innings on the 15-run rule.
The Warriors (6-7 overall, 1-5 Oregon West) entered the week without one of their primary pitchers, sophomore Hailey Smith, whose 14-strikeout performance had powered Philomath to a 7-1 win over the same Sweet Home squad just 10 days earlier.
Gallery: PHS softball vs. Sweet Home (April 30, 2026)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 16-0 softball loss at Warrior Field to Sweet Home on Thursday.
“The two things that we talk about on our team are attitude and effort and we’ve been lacking some effort in these last couple of games,” second-year head coach Kari Jaques said. “We definitely were up against a tough week having one of our main pitching arms out and I think we just didn’t do a good job of standing behind what we had.”
Sweet Home (9-8, 3-3) put up six runs in the first inning, added one in the second and tacked on nine more in the third.
“The first two games, we gave up really fast and today we fought a little bit harder, which was nice,” Jaques said, “but you can’t have a game where you have bad defense and bad offense — it doesn’t work out.”
Sophomore Libby Kramer started in the circle and was relieved by junior Haley King in the third inning. Sweet Home pounded out 11 hits with senior Trinity Victor, senior Katriona Harris, junior Hannah Sieminski and sophomore Emmalin Rosa each collecting two.
Philomath’s offense managed just two singles. Freshman Aniya Jaques poked a two-out single to right field in the second inning and junior Emily Burner reached on an infield single toward the shortstop in the third.
Harris went the distance at pitcher for Sweet Home, allowing two hits and one walk while striking out two.
Asked about finding small victories within the lopsided result, Jaques pointed to a few bright spots.
“I put Rylee (Martin) in a position she hasn’t played in a long time at shortstop to start off and she dove for three or four balls — it’s one of her things that she loves to do,” Jaques said. “We have some people that are towards the bottom of our lineup getting base hits. I think we need to pull those things back together and remember that we are a team that has beaten some really good teams and we need to forget that we’re a team that has lost some big ones.”
The Warriors return to action Tuesday at Stayton, a team that edged Philomath 9-6 in their first meeting on April 22.
Sweet Home 16, Philomath 0 (3)
Thursday, April 30, at Warrior Field, Philomath HS
Team 1 2 3 R H E Sweet Home (9-8, 3-3) 6 1 9 16 11 0 Philomath (6-7, 1-5) 0 0 0 0 2 1
Kramer, King (3) and Mason; Harris and N. Smith. W — Harris. L — Kramer. 2B — Rosa.
