On the baseball diamond, Philomath and Newport have developed an interesting rivalry through the years. The two teams have played in the same league for decades and over the past three seasons, the Warriors and Cubs have each won four — and that includes Wednesday night’s outcome.
Early on, it appeared the two rivals were destined for another close game. The Cubs, coming off a 7-5 win over Philomath on Monday night, had a 2-0 lead in the early innings.
Then came the bottom of the third.
The Warriors collected eight hits and worked nine walks to go along with two getting hit by pitches and another two reaching on errors. When the Cubs finally recorded the third out, Philomath had scored 18 runs. The Warriors went on to a 21-3 victory in a game called in the fifth inning.
“That was definitely a first for me,” junior Cameron Ordway said about his three plate appearances in the third alone. In all, Philomath sent 24 batters to the plate in the inning.
The Warriors (8-6) will play at 5 p.m. Thursday at La Salle Prep, a Class 5A school that will bring an 8-4 record into the contest.
An 18-run victory over a rival brought out the smiles but the team knows it could’ve done better this season. Thinking back on how league play unfolded, back-to-back losses of 4-3 and 7-5 to Stayton still stings.
“We lost those two to Stayton and that was rough,” sophomore Ty May said. “I think we could’ve done a lot better than we did; we were in our heads.”
Philomath is losing just two seniors from the roster in Chase Beardsley and Adam Hernandez.
“At the end of the day, I’m looking on to next year,” May said. “We’re returning a lot of guys and so I think we’re going to be really solid next year and continue to put a beating on these teams.”
Ordway, who pitched a complete-game six-hitter against Newport, believes next season can be a sweet experience.
“We definitely needed to shorten the losses — the two losses against Stayton were games that definitely got away from us,” he said. “But as our team grows and gets older and more experienced, I don’t think that’ll happen again.”
Against Newport, the Warriors got into a 2-0 hole in the first inning. Jon Fritz led off the game with a double to right field, took third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly. Another run came in on a Philomath error.
In the Warrior third, the first three batters reached on walks and Hernandez hit a shot that the center fielder couldn’t squeeze and was ruled an error. Jake Williams scored to get Philomath on the board. May then singled to bring in Ordway and David Griffith.
The Warriors had a 3-2 lead but was only getting started. Alek Russell and Beardsley singled, Skylar Brolin doubled, Blake Niemann singled and Williams doubled for a run of six straight hits and a 9-2 lead.
Griffith and Hernandez later singled to bring in a couple of more runs. May reached on an error and the lead was 12-2. Alek Russell walked and Beardsley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Newport brought in a new pitcher but Brolin immediately worked a walk to drive in the 14th run.
Niemann was then hit by a pitch to force in the 15th run and Chad Russell walked for the 16th.
Philomath took a 17-2 lead on an Ordway fly into left field to bring in Brolin. Niemann was out trying to reach third — it was the first out of the inning. PHS had scored 17 runs with no outs.
One more run came in when Hernandez drew a bases-loaded walk.
Newport went down 1-2-3 in the fourth and Philomath took a 21-2 lead on a three-run double by Griffith in the bottom half. The Cubs managed a run in the fifth to account for the final margin.
Griffith, Hernandez and Brolin each had two hits for the Warriors. Eight of the nine starters had at least one hit and the Warriors reached base 11 times on walks.
Ordway’s pitching line included the six hits allowed and three earned runs with no walks and six strikeouts.
Philomath 21, Newport 3 (5)
Wednesday, May 12, at Stephenson Field, Philomath HS
| TEAMS (RECORDS) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport (6-5) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| Philomath (8-6) | 0 | 0 | 18 | 3 | x | 21 | 11 | 2 |
NEWPORT
| Player | AB | R | H | BI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fritz, cf-p | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Johnson, p-ss | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Bruns, c | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Everitt, lf-p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Quillian, 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Blaser, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wiles, 2b-rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Malloy, 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Galen, lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Braxling, ss-3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Loomis, rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Green, 2b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 21 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
PHILOMATH
| Player | AB | R | H | BI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordway, p | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Griffith, ss | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Hernandez, cf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| May, 1b | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| A. Russell, 2b | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Beardsley, 3b | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Brolin, lf | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Niemann, rf | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Williams, c | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| C. Russell, ph | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Carter, c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 25 | 21 | 11 | 19 |
| DP: None. LOB: Newport 6, Philomath 6. 2B: Brolin 2, Williams, Griffith, Fritz. 3B: Fritz. |
NEWPORT
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Everitt L | 0* | 6 | 10 | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| Fritz | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 4 | 11 | 21 | 18 | 11 | 5 |
| * Everitt pitched to 10 batters in the third inning. |
PHILOMATH
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordway W | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| TOTAL | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
JUNIOR VARSITY
Philomath 19, Newport 3
Monday, May 10 at Stephenson Field, Philomath HS
| JV GAME NOTES |
|---|
| The Philomath JV team ends the season with an 8-3 record. … Statistics from the game were not available. |
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