Philomath High’s softball team will head up to Scappoose Friday to try to play its way into the state playoffs. The Warriors and Indians will square off in the play-in game at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing into the Class 4A bracket.
Philomath’s appearance in the play-in round represents a remarkable turnaround from the 2024 season when the team struggled to a 1-23 record. The Warriors will attempt to qualify for the 4A playoffs for the first time since 2019.
Philomath comes into the game on a two-game winning streak and season record of 13-11. After allowing 46 runs in games against the top three teams in the Oregon West standings, the Warriors regrouped and outscored Newport and North Marion by a combined 28-1.
Scappoose comes in with an 18-6 record, a performance that had the Indians at No. 8 in the final OSAA rankings. Scappoose lost three of its last four of the season but they were all close — 8-6 to Scio and 5-4 and 1-0 to Astoria. The Indians scheduled an extra game for Wednesday and beat Banks, 11-6.
Philomath and Scappoose last played in 2022 when this year’s seniors were freshmen. The Indians pulled out a 5-4 victory in the North Medford Spring Break Invitational and went on to reach the state playoffs. The Warriors ended up in the play-in round that year and lost 14-13 at Baker.
Track and field
Philomath will host the Oregon West Conference Championships Friday and Saturday at Clemens Field as runners, throwers and jumpers try to qualify for state. Both the girls and boys appear to be in solid positions to win the meet’s first-place trophies.
The girls, in particular, are hoping to qualify as many athletes as possible for the May 30-31 state meet in Eugene as they chase a fourth straight title, an accomplishment that’s never been seen in 4A history.
The meet begins at 3 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday. The first day will see finals in the 3,000-meter run and in several field events. Most of the running events will be prelims, however, with finals on the second day. The published schedule estimates that the trophy presentations will take place at around 4:40 p.m. Saturday.
The Warriors have several athletes ranked among the top 20 in the state, which provides a positive feel for the teams’ chances in the OWC Championships.
Three girls are ranked No. 1 in four events — senior Janice Hellesto in the 100 and 200, senior Anneka Steen in the high jump and senior Aspen Russell in the pole vault. Those with No. 2 rankings include Hellesto in the long jump, senior Adele Beckstead in the 3,000 and the 4-by-100 relay. And ranked third are freshman Cassidy Smart in the 1,500 and 3,000, senior Natalie Dunn in the 400 and the 4-by-400 relay.
“That’s a whopping 96 points on paper and doesn’t include the other points we could score at state,” PHS coach Joe Fulton said. “In other words, our girls have a legitimate chance of topping 100 points at the state meet. That has only been done once.”
Astoria scored 109 points at the state meet back in 2016. Incidentally, Philomath holds the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-highest state meet totals during championship seasons in 2023, 2010 and 2022, respectively.
Among the boys, sophomore Kaden Howard has been exceptional in the triple jump and is ranked No. 3 in the state. Howard comes into the conference meet after an impressive victory at last week’s Wally Ciochetti Invitational at Cottage Grove.
Girls tennis
Senior Adele Beckstead will be Philomath’s lone representative at this year’s 4A/3A/2A/1A state tournament, which begins Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Oregon State University Tennis Complex.
Beckstead received a bye through the first round and isn’t scheduled to play until Friday morning. She will face Baker sophomore Elizabeth Timm in the tournament’s Round of 16. The morning’s action begins at 8 a.m. with boys singles, then boys doubles, girls singles and girls doubles.
Beckstead and Timm played at last year’s state tournament in the consolation bracket. Playing a pro set, Beckstead won, 8-2, and went on to reach the consolation finals.
The top two seeds in the tournament are North Bend junior Raegan Farm and Marist Catholic sophomore Whitney Heddon, who beat Beckstead in the district championship match last week.
Beckstead enters state with a 13-3 record this season with two of those losses coming against Heddon. She has a stellar career record of 75-11 and has qualified for state all four years of high school.
After appearing at state tennis, Beckstead will head back to Philomath to compete in the 3,000-meter run at the district track meet.
Baseball
The Warriors will play a second game this week as they continue preparing for the Class 4A state playoffs. Philomath will face South Umpqua at 4 p.m. Friday at Terry Stephenson Field.
Philomath enters the game with a 19-5 record but has struggled in its last two outings with losses of 6-3 vs. North Marion and 11-0 vs. Blanchet Catholic. South Umpqua comes into the contest at 18-7 and is riding a 13-game win streak.
The Lancers are a 3A school and are also getting ready for the playoffs. The team won the Far West League with a 12-0 record to earn an automatic berth. Philomath also punched its ticket to state by finishing runner-up in the 4A’s Oregon West Conference.
Philomath and South Umpqua haven’t played since 2017 when the Warriors posted a 5-2 victory in a tournament at Scio. (Philomath’s Austin Gerding had a monster home run in that game, a shot that cleared the 360-foot sign in center field). The two teams were scheduled to play in 2018 but the game was canceled.
PHS coach Levi Webber said earlier this week that junior Caleb Babcock will start against South Umpqua and added that senior Joe Barnes and junior Wylie Griffith will also likely get in some work.
Boys volleyball
As an emerging sport within the OSAA, boys volleyball doesn’t crown an official champion but there is still a “culminating event” coming up this weekend at the Olympus Sports Center in Hillsboro. The Warriors, one of eight 4A schools at the tournament, will open with a 10 a.m. Saturday match against Cascade.
Philomath, Special District 2 co-champion, comes in with a 16-6 overall record and is seeded fourth. Fifth-seeded Cascade has a 6-11 record but appears to have played in a much-tougher district.
“Cascade’s league was mainly 5A and 6A teams and also one of the biggest leagues with eight teams, so their record of 4-10 and 6-11 overall probably wouldn’t be the same if they were placed with teams in their class,” PHS coach Helen Bennett said last weekend after the Warriors competed in a tournament at Estacada.
In the other matches, No. 8-seed Marshfield will face No. 1 Crook County, No. 6 Phoenix squares off and No. 3 Estacada and No. 7 Molalla will take on No. 2 Newport.
Philomath will play Marshfield or Crook County at 4 p.m. Saturday in either a loser’s bracket game or in the semifinals. The championship match is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday. Trophy games matches will be played Sunday at 10 a.m. (seventh/eighth), noon (fourth/sixth) and 4 p.m. (third/fifth).
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
