Sweet Home 5
Stayton 4
Bryce Beard pitched five scoreless innings to help the Huskies to a 5-4 conference playoff win Friday afternoon.
The Husky baseball team was down 4-0 going into the bottom of the second inning of the last game of Capital Conference playoffs.
Stayton had just defeated Molalla in a matchup between the conference’s fourth- and fifth-place teams.
“We had a tough start in this one,” Coach Dan Tow said. “Brent (Smith) was a little tired, and our defense had several miscues, so we didn’t help him much.
“However, our kids fought back with two runs in the bottom of the second to make it 4-2.
“In the inning, we had doubles by Travis Smith and Brandon Martin.
“Bryce Beard came in and pitched from the third inning on and really did a nice job.
“We scored two more in the third to tie it up, and it remained knotted four apiece until the seventh.
“Brandon Martin got hit by a pitch, and Donny Cliver laid down a great bunt to give us runners at first and second.
“A Tyler Emmert ground ball got us to second and third with one out.
“After a strikeout for the second out, Chris Phillips came up and singled to left to knock in Brandon Martin with the game-winning run.
“This was a great win for our kids and our program. I was really proud of our kids and they way they battled back from an early deficit.”
At bats, Phillips went 2-4 with a double and the game-winning RBI in the seventh. Travis Smith went 2-4 with a double. Martin went 1-3 with a double and two RBIs. Brent Smith had a double. Emmert and Cliver had singles.
Jake Emery was the losing pitcher.
The Huskies played Baker High School in Baker City on Monday in the first round of state playoffs, the first since 1991. Baker is the second-place team out of the Greater Oregon League. The results of the game were not available at press time.
Stayton 2200 000 4 6 2
Sweet Home 0220 001 5 8 3