Wayne Spinney
For The New Era
The Huskies opened their chase for a title last Wednesday with a win at home against Stayton and completed a successful first week of league play by downing Molalla in extra innings Thursday night under the lights.
?We should be in every league game this year,? said Head Coach Dan Tow.
Stayton 8 Sweet Home 9
The Huskies jumped on Stayton?s starter for four runs in the first inning as they batted around the order, but left the bases loaded as an omen of what might be coming.
?We?ve left runners on base too many times this year,? said Tow. ?It almost came back to bite us, but the guys rallied with some key hits in the seventh today.?
Senior starter Cody Miller threw five plus innings of seven hit ball while striking out five but tired in the sixth in giving way to reliever Lance Carter. Stayton touched Carter for two runs in taking a seventh inning lead, but the Huskies scored three in their last at-bat to dispatch the Eagles and earn Carter the win.
?We forced their pitcher to throw to us in the seventh, drew two walks and got some clutch hits from Carter and Smith to win it,? said Tow.
Junior Mark Lewis made a great defensive play in the seventh to stem the Stayton rally and drew a lead off walk in coming around to score in the bottom of the inning.
?Lewis? play was big,? said Tow. ?It was a gutsy performance by a lot of kids today.?
Sweet Home 6 Molalla 5
Husky starter Brandon Martin was three for four, tossed six plus innings of great baseball and senior infielder Tim Matuszak scored the game winner with aggressive base running as Sweet Home prevailed in nine innings.
?We made several key defensive mistakes late in the game, but we made the plays and scored the runs when we needed to.? said Tow.
Senior outfielders Dajon DeMille and Ronnie Garcia both collected three big hits and scored two runs apiece, but the single run scored by Matuszak was the game winner. The middle infielder bunted his way on in the ninth, was sacrificed to second on another bunt, stole third and daringly legged it home on an infield out to put his team up 6-5.
?We knew we could win some games with our running this year and Matuszak is smart on the bases,? said Tow. ?What I?m really happy about though, is the pitching we got from Martin and Carter.?
Central 11, 11 Sweet Home 6, 1
The former Capitol Conference rival Panthers rolled into town with the warm weather on Saturday for a double header. They promptly scored a bundle of runs in game one and silenced Husky bats in game two for a convincing sweep. Game one was a simple one inning story. Three walks, three Husky errors, four Central hits and a home run saw the Panthers score ten in the third and cruise the rest of the way for the win.
?It was a simple case of giving away a ballgame today. We were up three zip in the third and should have gotten them out in their half of the inning, but three walks and two errors cost us the game.? said Tow.
Game two saw Husky batsmen reach base only six times through the first six innings as they went quietly with only three hits. Dajon DeMille continued his torrid hitting in collecting two of those hits and Cody Miller pitched well in taking the loss. In a pitchers duel that turned ugly late, the home standing Huskies barely avoided a shut out by plating their only run in the last frame.
?I still feel pretty good with the lineup we put on the field,? reflected Tow. ?We?ll see what happens this week against Sisters and North Marion.?
For the time being the Huskies are without a loss in the league. Playoff hopes are still alive and well in Sweet Home three weeks into the season. Two clutch wins don?t make a season but they have gone a long way to season young athletes for upcoming games.