By Keeghan Gittins
For The New Era
Sweet Home’s softball team came into the final week of Oregon West Conference play with a precarious hold on third place in the standings after a 1-2 finish last week.
The Huskies got off to a bad start Monday, May 5, with a 14-0 loss to No. 11 Stayton, then rebounded with an 11-10 thriller at Philomath, Wednesday, going deep into the 10th inning to finally win it. At home again, against No. 3 Cascade, the Huskies lost 15-1.
Stayton 14, Sweet Home 0
Monday’s game started within reason, with both teams going scoreless in the first two innings, the Huskies forcing four pop-outs from the visitors.
Katriona “Peanut” Harris started the game as the pitcher, letting up zero hits and only a single run in her two innings. Jocelyn Fairchild pitched the rest of the game.
Stayton got on the board with an error in the third.
Errors were the story of this game, as the Huskies had the same amount of hits as Stayton, with six, but had 11 errors. The Eagles scored three more in the fourth and added another in the fifth. Miley Smith was the only batter to have more than one base hit. Four Huskies stole a base in the game (Aubrey Newberry, Addy Vannice, Kennadie King, and M. Smith).
Going into the seventh, the Huskies kept the game decently close, only being down five to enter the seventh.
But Stayton took advantage of Sweet Home’s multiple errors and scored nine runs to end the game, 14-0.
Sweet Home 11, Philomath 10 (10)
The Huskies finally toppled one of their league rivals, Philomath, which has had Sweet Home’s number for a while, winning their last two matchups, 9-5 and 9-3.
This game ran into three extra innings until Sweet Home was finally able to pull away.
The Huskies struck early in Wednesday’’s matchup, with Anabelle Morris delivering a two-run RBI single to open the scoring.
But Philomath responded quickly, plating three runs of its own to take the 3–2 lead. The Huskies tied the game in the second inning and pulled ahead again with two runs in the third. Again, the Warriors evened it up in the fourth with two more runs to make the game 6-6.
The teams were neck-and-neck, trading blows. Past the first inning, neither was able to plate more than two runs in an inning. Throughout the whole game, there were six lead changes. In the sixth, Sweet Home took a one-run lead before Kaylie Kohler of the Warriors homered on a fly ball to left field with a runner on first to take the lead, 8-7. Aaliyah Brown hit a two-run RBI single to take back the lead, 9-8. Brown ended the day with three RBIs.
Sweet Home was able to steal six bases, half of them coming from Vannice, who led the team, scoring three runs.
Both teams ended with almost identical stats: 11 hits and 10 errors.
Fairchild had a short stint on the mound before Harris relieved her and pitched the final nine innings, throwing 84 strikes and four strikeouts.
In the bottom of the seventh, with the game tied 9-9 and a runner on third, Philomath hit a pop fly to second baseman Hannah Sieminski. Sieminski made a clutch throw to home, where Natalie Smith saved the game by tagging out the runner, sending the game to an extra inning.
Despite a Miley Smith double, both teams went scoreless in the eighth, pushing the game to the ninth. Sweet Home and the Warriors scored a run, making the game go to the tenth and final inning, where a Kaitlyn Kennedy single scored what would be the winning run, as Philomath would not score, finally ending the madness with an 11-10 Sweet Home victory.
Cascade 15, Sweet Home 1
At home against the No. 3 team in the state, Huskies had the toughest matchup of the week, falling 15-1.
The Cougars started hot from the gate, taking a five-run lead entering the bottom of the third, where Natalie Smith scored the Huskies’ only run.
In that same inning, Harris had Sweet Home’s only hit of the day. The Huskies finished with 10 total strikeouts.
Fairchild and Harris each pitched half the game, Harris having four strikeouts, but Fairchild only let up five runs. Cascade piled onto its lead with a home run, ending the fourth up 9-1. The Cougars scored six more in the fifth, one of them being another home run, scoring their 15th and final run, ending the game due to mercy rule, 15-1.
Errors were the difference-maker during the week, as in the first nine OWC league games, Sweet Home only committed 22 errors, but in those three committed 30.
Entering the final week of OWC play still in third place, the Huskies were traveling to Newport (2-10) on Monday, May 12, host North Marion (2-10) at 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, which will be Senior Night, then finish at second-place Stayton (10-2) on Thursday. The top three teams in the league play on after this week.