Philomath High pitcher Joe Barnes never holds back on the mound.
A senior righthander who plans to play next spring at Centralia College up in Washington state, Barnes tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve. He found himself experiencing both the highs and lows of a tight, competitive baseball game Thursday that ended up as a 6-4 Warriors win.
Gallery: PHS baseball vs. The Dalles (Thursday, April 10, 2025)
A collection of images from Philomath High’s 6-4 baseball win over The Dalles on Thursday.
In the top of the sixth, The Dalles put together a two-out rally to take a 4-3 lead on the Warriors. Senior Will Booth connected on a two-run double to center to tie the game and then the Riverhawks took the lead on a one-run single by sophomore Sawyer Dray.
Barnes wasn’t happy when he came off the field but he didn’t let the situation get the best of him.
“I just flushed it behind me and thought, there’s another inning,” Barnes said.
After Philomath regained the lead in the bottom half, Barnes went out for the seventh and the Riverhawks threatened again by loading the bases with two outs. Philomath’s pitcher kept his composure, however, and facing the top of the order with the game on the line, got the batter to hit a ground ball to second base.
Junior Wylie Griffith fielded it cleanly and had a somewhat wild throw over to first but senior Brady Russell secured the catch and the Warriors held on for the victory.
“We hit the No. 7 hitter there in the sixth inning with two outs and that started their whole rally there so it’s just those little things that we’ve got to make sure we clean up,” PHS coach Levi Webber said. “That was a good team and we’re fortunate to get out of here with a win with two hits and not pitching at our best.”
Starter Caleb Babcock, who pitched the first three innings, and Barnes limited The Dalles to six hits and finished with a combined 11 strikeouts. But six walks, three errors and a couple of hit batsmen created opportunities for the visitors.
“Joe was doing his thing for the most part,” Webber said. “I thought he was pretty good in the zone, you know, we’ve just got to make sure we take care of business when we can with two outs to get ourselves out of the inning.”
For the players, defeating The Dalles was a feel-good moment. The Riverhawks eliminated Philomath last season in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.
“It does feel good to beat this team,” Barnes said. “We came in thinking we could win easily and they came back on us for a little bit but we held our composure pretty well.”
The Riverhawks have struggled through the early part of this season and with the loss to Philomath extended their losing streak to eight games.
“We’ve got a ton of respect for Pat (Clark) and his club for sure,” Webber said. “They have a lot of the same kids off that team last year — the Booth kid that smacked the two-run double in the sixth was on that team — so yeah, our kids were pretty fired up to face the guys that whipped us last year. It did feel good.”
Philomath appeared to be business as usual in the early going of this one. The Warriors took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Leadoff batter Jacob Hernandez walked, stole second, moved to third on a ground out and then scored on an infield error. Grant Niemann, who reached on the error that plated Hernandez, later scored himself on a wild pitch.
The Warriors added another run in the second. Hernandez walked with two outs, moved over to third on a Babcock single and scored on a passed ball.
Babcock struck out the side in the top of the first and fanned two more in the second before the Riverhawks broke through for a run in the third. With two outs, The Dalles No. 9 batter walked and ended up scoring on a line drive that glanced off the center fielder’s glove.
Babcock left the mound after the third inning with the Warriors leading 3-1. But the exit had nothing to do with performance. Webber had him on a limited pitch count with plans to start him Monday at Sweet Home but at the same time, wanted him to get in a few innings after a game earlier this week at West Albany was rained out.
After The Dalles had taken the 4-3 lead in the sixth, Philomath needed to put together an immediate response. Barnes and junior Rocco De La Rosa both walked and Hernandez reached on an infield single — the Riverhawks’ second baseman stopped the ball on a dive but couldn’t recover in time for the throw.
With the bases loaded and Babcock at the plate, The Dalles’ pitcher was called for a balk to force in the game-tying run. Babcock walked and facing a new pitcher with no outs, Niemann connected on a sacrifice fly to center field for a 5-4 Warriors lead.
Senior Kayson Olsen walked to load the bases. Russell followed with another walk to force in the sixth run.
Teams limited to two hits in a game often don’t come out on the winning end.
“No, you certainly don’t,” Webber said. “But we found a way to score some runs in other interesting and curious ways and so that was good.”
In that sixth inning, the Warriors’ lone hit was the Hernandez infield single.
“It was a little unconventional in how we did it — but we did it and that’s what matters,” Webber said. “It’s not a beauty contest, it’s about competing till the end, competing to 21 outs and making sure you find a way to put yourself in a spot when you have an opportunity and we did that.”
As for Barnes, he has a 3.36 earned run average and 26 strikeouts in 16-2/3 innings with a 2-0 record and a save so far this season. He believes the Warriors are in a positive mindset as the schedule transitions to conference play next week.
“We’re all playing as a team, we all like each other, we don’t argue,” Barnes said. “I think we’re becoming more of a family.”
Philomath (6-1-1) is scheduled to play a nonleague game Friday at Gladstone with the first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m. The Warriors will then get into the Oregon West with a series next week against Sweet Home.
