The Huskies defeated La Pine on the road in baseball on May 1 12-3 but lost to their toughest rivals, 12-1 against Elmira at home on May 2 and 12-0 against Sisters on the road, leaving their hold on second place vulnerable.
Sweet Home must win both of its games this week to finish second ahead of Elmira. The Huskies were scheduled to play at Cottage Grove on Tuesday, and they will host Junction City on Friday.
The Huskies split their games against Cottage Grove and defeated Junction City twice.
“We should be fine,” said Coach Matt Matuszak. “I think we’ll regroup just fine. I think the kids are up to the challenge. We control our own destiny.”
If Sweet Home wins this week, finishing second behind Sisters, it will host Cascade, Central or Newport in the first round of playoffs on May 18.
If they lose a game and finish third, they’ll likely travel to Newport.
The Huskies just missed sweeping Elmira and were swept by Sisters this season.
“I don’t feel good at all,” Matuszak said. “We didn’t play well. They played better than we did. Honestly, we didn’t hit well, we didn’t pitch well. We didn’t play good defense.”
Statistics for the game against Sisters were not available at press time.
Against Elmira, the Huskies had two hits, including a homerun from Hunter Bidwell, the team’s only homerun so far. New bats have made hitting a homerun more difficult. Drayson Scott went 1-2.
Justin Rice started the game on the mound, striking out two, walking one and hitting one batter. Jeremy White pitched one inning, striking out one, walking one and hitting one. Cory Hanks pitched two innings, striking out two and walking two.
At bat against La Pine, Cory Hanks led, going 5-5 with a run, two RBIs and a double. Nate Melcher went 3-3 with two runs and two RBIs. White had two hits with a run and two RBIs. Bidwell had three hits with two runs, three RBIs and two doubles. Rice had three hits with two runs and one RBI. Scott had one hit with a run and an RBI. Kyle Winslow added two hits and two runs. Colton Holly had a single, and Christian Voldbaek scored a run.
Pitching, Hanks started, pitching four innings and striking out four and hitting one batter. Scott pitched one inning, giving up a walk and striking out one. White pitched two innings, striking out three batters.
Elmira 203 502 0 – 12 7 0
Sweet Home 010 000 0 – 1 2 4
Sweet Home 000 211 8 – 12 19 2
La Pine 000 101 1 – 3 5 2