By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  Let’s match my bat versus my bat.

Wednesday afternoon’s Greater Valley Conference baseball game between North Salem and Sprague featured 21 hits and 13 runs under the rainy skies at Schaefer Stadium.

“It’s Oregon everyone plays in it all the time so it’s not the best but it’s not a big deal (either),” said Olympians Jesse Thrasher on playing in the elements.  “Hitting’s always good, it always gets the job done.”

12 of those hits belonged to Sprague as they used a Spencer Plant sacrifice RBI at-bat in the seventh inning to win the Battle of The Bats in North Salem, 7-6 over the Vikings to improve to 3-1 in GVC.

“It’s always a fight, so it was good to come out on top,” said Thrasher on the win.

A fight nonetheless as North Salem’s Dalton Garza describes their fight as ‘North Salem Baseball’ as they fell to 1-4 in GVC play and 5-9 overall.

“We’re just out there cause we knew we had to do our job,” he said as his team picked up nine hits on the day.  “We’re out here playing a game and play all seven innings.  We fight back every time and we don’t let anyone kick us around .

“So we were fighting back for how we know how to play.  We know how to play North Salem baseball on the other side of the tracks and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

That’s what they did.  Fought and clawed for everything.

Following a ten minute rain delay, with a heavy mist overhead and down 2-1, the Vikings tacked on four runs to take a 5-2 lead entering the fifth innings.

Featured in the inning was a Will Tsukamaki two-run RBI double that gave North a 4-2 lead before Sean Alverado came home from third after a wild pitch.

Thrasher sparked Sprague in the Top of the fifth  with a RBI double after Justin Culpepper and Tanner Sorensen got on base to start the inning.

Spencer Hofziger and Jake Reece both added runs on the board to knot the game up at five entering the bottom half of the fifth inning as both teams traded runs entering the bottom of the sixth.

“I thought the kids battled, I just thought we gave up too many bases,” said North Salem Head Coach Chris Lee.  “We just gave up bases and when you do that against a pesky team, there going to make you pay.”

Noah Boatwright started the inning with a triple, but North Salem couldn’t bring him home to give them a lead entering the seventh as Plant tacked on the game-winner in the top half of the inning.

At 1-4 in league and with a tough West Salem team on Tuesday, Garza knows that him and his squad could be doing better, but are confident that they can get back on track against the Titans in West Salem.

“I think we’ll be able to strike back because we know we’re better than this,” said Garza.  “We knew we should’ve had some games in our hands.  We know we’re way better than what we’ve been doing and I’m pretty sure tomorrow and our next game against West Salem we’ll be showing them that we’re not going to roll over no matter what.

“We’re still going to be playing North Salem baseball.”

Up next for the Olys will actually be those same Titans that the Viks will be facing this Friday at home.

EXTRA PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD