Sweet Home beat Siuslaw 6-2 and lost to Newport 8-3 last week in its opening games of baseball.
The Huskies opened the season at home against Siuslaw on Thursday and hosted Newport on Friday.
“We really got good pitching performance in both games,” said Coach Dan Tow, and other than the sixth inning against Newport, the team had good games opening week. “For the first outing of the year, it was really a good job. I like our team. I think they’ve been working hard. We’re going to have keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
That’s playing good baseball, pitching well and backing it up with solid defense, he said.
Facing Siuslaw, Sweet Home started scoring out of the gate, leading 2-1 after one inning and then scoring once in the second and three more times in the fifth. The Vikings scored one run each in the fifth and sixth innings.
“Good first game tonight,” Tow said. “Danny Virtue really was outstanding on the mound with 11 strikeouts and no earned runs in six innings of work. He also helped himself with two hits and scored three runs.”
Brandon Keenon was 2-3 at the plate with a two-run home run and three RBIs. Jake Long added two hits and an RBI, and Justin Tow had a double and an RBI. Virtue also had an RBI.
On the mound, Virtue gave up three hits and two walks. Keenon pitched one inning in relief, giving up a hit, a walk and an earned run.
Siuslaw had four hits. Kyle Rose hit a double with an RBI. Starting pitcher Michael Larson struck out five Huskies and gave up a walk and seven hits. Michael Mason pitched in relief, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out one.
Against Newport, the Huskies fell behind early as Newport scored runs in the first and third innings. The Huskies scored a pair of runs in the bottom of four, but Newport brought another run home in the fifth to lead 3-2.
“Devin Stafford gave us a quality outing today, with nine strikeouts and three walks, but we couldn’t come up with much run support,” Tow said. “Then Newport broke it open in the sixth inning by getting a couple of key hits, and we had a couple of mistakes.”
The Huskies scored one more time, in the bottom of the sixth.
Keenon and Aiona each had two hits, and the Huskies one each from Kobe Olson, Justin Tow and Stafford. Aiona had the Huskies only RBI. Tow, Keenon and Aiona each had one run.
At bat, Chris Guttierez led the Cubs, going 3-3, with a double and an RBI.
“Newport’s starting pitcher, Sam Imbler-Bremmer did a god job keeping us off balance, and we just couldn’t get it done today,” Tow said.
He gave up one earned run, four hits and no walks, while striking out three Huskies. Pitching in relief was Clark Boys, who gave up three hits and an earned run and struck out three batters.
For the Huskies, Stafford gave up five earned runs and seven hits, while Ryan Krause, pitching in relief, gave up two walks, a hit and an earned run with two strikeouts.
Siuslaw 000 001 1 – 2 4 2
Sweet Home 201 030 0 – 6 7 1
Newport 101 015 0 – 8 8 2
Sweet Home 000 201 0 – 3 7 4