Philomath High’s baseball team needed to break out of a funk at the plate to have a chance against Cascade on Monday at Stephenson Field. Four days earlier, the Cougars limited the Warriors to four hits in a 7-0 shutout.
But in this latest meeting between the two schools, Philomath did much better in the batter’s box to pull out a 7-5 victory. Warriors senior Adam Hernandez led the offensive charge in the late innings with triples in both the fifth and sixth innings.
“I was just going out there and was just like ‘I’m going to take three,’” Hernandez said about his mindset on the base paths. “I saw it in the outfield and was thinking three all the way.”
Was head coach Levi Webber, who coaches third when the team is batting, waving him on?
“I just went on my own … I’m fast, I got it,” he said.
Hernandez said the team worked a lot on hitting in practice after back-to-back shutout losses to Cascade and North Marion.
“Yesterday’s practice was kind of more of a focused practice and I was able to sharpen it up a little bit after last weekend when I didn’t have my best stuff,” Hernandez said about his own hitting. “But definitely came out with a lot of intensity — it felt good.”
Besides Hernandez, junior Alek Russell was seeing the ball and went 3 for 4 with two RBIs. Junior Cameron Ordway went 2 for 4 with a double.
“For us, it’s about finding that inner fire within yourself and then carrying that over and sharing it with the rest of the team,” Hernandez said. “One person can be doing good but if the rest are not … we just have to come together. It’s a team sport.”
The game opened with Cascade’s leadoff batter, David Kanoff, hitting a double to left field. But the next batter hit a line drive to PHS third baseman Jake Williams and he doubled off the runner.
Cascade scored the game’s first run in the top of the third on a Philomath error with two outs. But the Warriors were able to respond right away in the bottom half. Ordway opened the inning with a single, stole second and scored on a David Griffith single. After Hernandez was hit by a pitch, both base runners moved up a base on a double steal. Ty May worked a walk to load the bases for Russell.
Russell came through with a single to shallow center field to drive in two runs for a 3-1 Philomath lead. Two batters later, Williams hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in May.
In the fifth, Hernandez led off with a triple over the head of Cascade’s left fielder. May followed with a sacrifice fly to right to bring in Hernandez for a 5-1 lead.
Heading into the sixth, starting pitcher Skylar Brolin was in good shape with a two-hitter going but Cascade chased him off the mound with a walk, triple and two doubles and pulled to within 5-4 on the scoreboard.
Ordway left his shortstop position and took over at pitcher. Cascade got two more hits in the sixth and worked a walk to load the bases but Ordway came through with a strikeout to end the inning and the threat.
Philomath got the lead back up to 7-4 in the bottom half. Hernandez hit his second triple — this one over the center fielder’s head — to drive in two runs. Logan Carter had led off the inning with a single and Ordway followed with a double. Two batters later, Hernandez brought them in.
The Warriors then needed to close out the Cougars and not let the game slip away.
“We’ve talked about not quitting on ourselves and keep pushing on and not giving up on each other and I think that’s what helped in this one,” Hernandez said. “They came up a little bit and it was just like ‘we need to get this started again’ and we did.”
Cascade (4-5) scored in the seventh after back-to-back singles but the game ended with a pop-out to Carter at catcher and a strikeout by Ordway.
Brolin went five innings and allowed five hits, three earned runs and one walk with five strikeouts. In Ordway’s two innings, he gave up four hits, one walk and no earned runs with four strikeouts.
Philomath (5-5) plays at home again on Friday with a home doubleheader against Woodburn.
Philomath 7, Cascade 5
Monday, May 3 at Stephenson Field, Philomath HS
| TEAMS (RECORDS) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cascade (4-5) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 1 |
| Philomath (5-5) | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | x | 7 | 9 | 1 |
CASCADE
| Player | AB | R | H | BI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanoff, c | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Reeder, ss | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Boyles, 3b-p | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Tobiasson, cf-p | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Yechout, lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maldonado, lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Schnepp, 1b | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Ramos, 2b-cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Wolf, rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Walsh, p-3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peralta, 2b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 29 | 5 | 9 | 3 |
PHILOMATH
| Player | AB | R | H | BI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordway, ss-p | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Griffith, 2b-ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hernandez, cf | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| May, 1b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Russell, lf-2b | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Brolin, p-lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Williams, 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Niemann, rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carter, c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 25 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
| DP: Philomath 1. LOB: Cascade 6, Philomath 7. 2B: Ordway, Boyles, Kanoff, Tobiasson. 3B: Hernandez 2, Reeder. |
CASCADE
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walsh | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Boyles | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Tobiasson L | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 6 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 5 |
PHILOMATH
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brolin W | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Ordway S | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| TOTAL | 7 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| Brolin pitched to four batters in the sixth inning. |
JUNIOR VARSITY
Philomath 15, Cascade 5
Monday, May 3 at Philomath HS
| JV GAME NOTES |
|---|
| Philomath’s JV team goes to 7-2 on the season. … Complete game statistics were not available. … The JV team is scheduled to play Thursday at home against Corvallis. |
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