By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore-  Some teams would just fold up tents and call it a day down 3-0 after one inning.

But the young and the restless Stayton Eagles didn’t.  They fought down to the final out in the 7-4 loss to Newport to start Oregon West Conference play.

“I like how we didn’t get down on ourselves after making some mistakes,” said Matt Lindemann.  “The errors cost us in the long run but we kept on battling throughout the game.

“In the top of the first inning we committed too many errors and allowed them to get three unearned runs.”

Errors illustrated the top half of the opening inning of this match-up as the Cubs held a 3-0 lead entering the second inning.  That was, until Ryan Brown made his presence known.

In the bottom half of the second inning, Brown sent a straight liner to left center field to bring two home to cut into the Newport lead.

It was 3-2 after two innings.

But, that rally was short-lived as the Cubs used two swings of the bat in a bases loaded situation to increase their lead to 5-2 before starting pitcher Kyle Jorgenson helped his cause with a RBI Single to cut into the three-run lead entering the fourth.

Both teams traded runs, but the Eagles couldn’t overcome those early errors to take Newport.

However, Stayton will have an opportunity to get back the loss Thursday at Newport.  Having seen how these guys play already, the Eagles enter Thursday’s rematch knowing that they can hang with these guys.

“We know we can hang with this team,” said Lindemann.  “We will enter Thursday’s game with more confidence in ourselves.”

First pitch of the game is slated for 4:30pm in Newport.