North Marion falls one base short in 4-3 loss to Gladstone
AURORA, Ore. - Out of the eighteen outs required to get through the first six innings of a baseball game, Gladstone's starting pitcher, Justin Layton, only needed to face twenty Husky batters to record those eighteen outs. Throughout that entire period, North Marion could only muster two baserunners - only one of which came via a base hit. However, the Huskies' offense awakened in the bottom of the seventh, when they mounted an inspired comeback. In the last ditch effort, the Huskies used hits, walks, and whatever way possible to get on base. And it was working. North Marion had tallied three runs in the inning to pull within a run, and junior Wyatt Moore stood on third, awaiting to score the tying run. But the final two North Marion batters could not produce a ground ball, sac fly, base hit, or something of the like to score Moore, and the Huskies fell just ninety feet short of pulling out yet another comeback win against Gladstone on Friday night at Bob Brack Stadium.
The game started smoothly for North Marion's starter, Brock Breshears, who retired the first three Gladiators with ease. In the Huskies'
half of the opening inning, leadoff hitter Kyle Williamson reached on a walk and was moved over to third, but that was as far as he would get - possibly foreshadowing the ending of the game.
As easy as the first inning was for North Marion defensively, the second inning was a polar opposite. Right off the bat one could tell it was going to be a rough inning when the leadoff batsmen in the inning reached base on an error. The error started a chain effect of Gladiator offense, as when all was said and done in the inning, Gladstone had scored three times off of two hits and the error. In the inning, Breshears issued three free passes to further help the Gladstone offensive effort.
The three-run deficit did not look too daunting from an outsider's perspective, as the Huskies had came back just a few days prior from the same three-run deficit to beat the same team. However, Layton continued his near-perfect pitching through the sixth inning, and the game reached its final stages with a 4-0 Gladstone lead.
One may think that the Huskies would accept defeat and escape the game with a little life left for next week's three game slate. But North Marion perservered, knowing that Layton would have to run out of gas at some point. Zach Williamson got the snowball rolling when he legged out an infield single, on a well-hit ball to first base. Brandan Hopper followed up with a single to center field, and that was enough evidence for Coach Webster of Gladstone to pull the plug on Layton's mostly-successful day. It took a while for the Gladiator's reliever to catch up to game speed, as Tristan Wampole was walked, loading the bases. Wyatt Moore came up in the all-important, no-outs, bases-loaded situation for the Huskies, and he delivered with a single to right-center field. The ball hung up a bit, forcing the North Marion runners to hesitate on their advancement, so only one run scored. But the bases remained loaded and the outs remained at zero for Spencer Beachy. A wild pitch by Gladstone resulted in a one-base advancement for all the runners, and a two-run game at 4-2. Beachy productively grounded out, as Wampole scored easily on the ball hit to second base. With Moore representing the tying run at third, both Danny Robles and Nat Barrell took turns at knocking Wyatt home. Nonetheless, Wyatt was still standing at third as the lights on the scoreboard shut off, representing a very disappointing loss.
The box score was pretty dry for the Huskies, as only four hits were recorded throughout the lineup. Those hits came from Brock Breshears, Zach Williamson, Hopper, and Moore in that order. Gladstone's stat sheet didn't look too much better offensively, as they only tallied five hits. But other numbers do stick out such as the Huskies' three errors, coming at vital times which helped Gladstone's win. Spencer Beachy, who relieved Breshears mid-way through the third inning, was solid in his four and two thirds innings, allowing three hits and no earned runs. Beachy navigated his way through the final fourteen outs in just 45 pitches.
Although the game was extremely frustrating for those sporting the green, the seventh-inning near-comeback showed the true fight that the team has. Even though this is not the club who is going to cruise to easy victories over tough opponents, the effort and potential is always going to be there; that much is more important than pure talent.
The Huskies have a three-game Tri-Valley Conference slate next week. North Marion will have a chance at prolonging Estacada's search for their first league win when the two clubs meet twice next week; Monday from North Marion and Wednesday from Estacada. The Huskies also meet up with the White Buffaloes in Madras on Friday. All games are at 5 p.m.