The Philomath High School baseball team ended the Riverhawk Baseball Invitational at The Dalles on a high note with a 12-2 victory over the host school. The game was stopped after the fifth inning on the 10-run mercy rule.
Sophomore Jayce Iverson threw all five innings for the Warriors and allowed four hits, three walks and no earned runs with six strikeouts.
Philomath (3-3) set the tone early with four runs in the top of the first. Junior AJ Altishin pushed the first run across with a one-out double to center field to score junior Gavin Bennett, who was in as a courtesy runner for junior catcher Cameron Herbert. Senior Caleb Babcock followed with a single to get Altishin home and then junior Jacob Hernandez connected on a double to left field to score Babcock. Hernandez later scored the fourth run of the inning on the front end of a double steal — junior Rustan Woosley was safe on the back end.
In the second inning, sophomore Sammy Hernandez singled to right and came around to score on a ball put in play by Altishin for a 5-1 lead.
The Warriors scored another four runs in the third inning. Woosley opened with a single followed by walks to Iverson and senior Wylie Griffith to load the bases. Sammy Hernandez hit a sac fly to center field to drive in Woosley. Iverson scored on a wild pitch and Griffith was forced home when Altishin reached on a bases-loaded walk. Babcock followed with a single and along with an error by the Riverhawks, Altishin was able to make it home for a 9-2 lead.
Philomath added three more in the fourth to push its advantage to 10 runs. Junior CK Kvidt opened with a double to the third-base side and later scored on a sacrifice bunt by Iverson. Woosley, who had earlier singled, then scored on a single by Sammy Hernandez. The final run was scored by Sammy Hernandez on a wild pitch.
The Dalles (2-3) went down 1-2-3 in the fourth with three fly balls to Babcock in center field. In the fifth, the Riverhawks led off with a single but the batter was thrown out trying to reach second on the hit. The home team got a base runner two batters later thanks to walk but the game ended on a fly out to center.
Offensively for Philomath, Babcock went 3 for 3 with two RBIs, Woosley was 2 for 3, Sammy Hernandez finished 2 for 4 with two RBIs and Altishin was 1 for 3 with two RBIs. The team had 11 hits in total.
Sophomore Kale Beardmore led the Riverhawks with two of his team’s four hits.
Philomath will come home for some rest before hitting the road again April 3-4 for games at La Grande and Pendleton. The next home game is scheduled for April 7 against West Albany.
Philomath 12, The Dalles 2 (5)
Thursday, March 26, at Quinton Street Ball Park, The Dalles
Team 1 2 3 4 5 R H E Philomath (3-3) 4 1 4 3 0 12 11 2 The Dalles (2-3) 1 1 0 0 0 2 4 3
Iverson and Herbert; Peterson, Beardmore (2), Kelley (4) and Dray. W — Iverson. L — Peterson. 2B — Altishin, Kvidt, J. Hernandez, Bustos.