By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.– It was the start of the North Salem Viking Baseball Summer Season when they traveled to Gilmore Field to play South Salem Monday evening.

There was even a familiar face in their dugout though with soon-to-be Viking Graduate Noah Boatwright helping out with his former squad.

“It’s great to see them out here because four or five of them were my teammates this year so we didn’t have practice today so I figure I come out and give them a look, see what they got,” said Boatwright. “It’s fun, it’s good to be out here.”

Boatwright is currently playing on the Withnell Dodgers American Legion team this summer before going to Chemeketa Community College in the fall for baseball.

But, Boatwright, acting as the first baseline coach in Monday’s game for North Salem, witnessed the future of his program that he is leaving behind pull off an incredible comeback to start the Summer League Season.

Down four entering the bottom of the fifth inning and facing a team with a deeper bench then they had, with the heat beating them down and with the bases loaded, North Salem rallied.

With the bases loaded, Luna Reyes was walked in for a run. Zach Goodwin was too walked in for a run.

Sean Alvarado had a RBI single, so did Will Tsukamaki that tied up the game at nine entering bottom of the fifth inning.

“Tying it up was a big thing because they got a little momentum and we kind of took some of that momentum away when we did that so, it put us right back into the swing of things,” said North Salem Head Coach Chris Lee.

Both defenses forced extra innings, and now trying to beat the setting sun to the west, somebody had to break this tie.

The Vikings struck first.  Thanks to Luna Reyes.

Reyes used a wild pitch on a throw-out attempt at first base to go from first to third before Jake Mason brought him in for the go-ahead run.

Danny Alvarado put the Vikings up two with a RBI-Double that brought Mason home.

Down to their final three outs in the bottom of the eight, and the bases juiced with one out; Cameron Kallhoff in his final inning of work of the few he pitched Monday, channeled his inner Mariano Rivera during a save opportunity and struck out his next two batters as if he was the fame Closer.

Despite almost being outnumbered 2-to-1 by the Saxons Monday and battling through the adversity, Kallhoff knew that the hard work, sacrifice and the trust he has in his team helped them down the stretch.

“That last strikeout to get that second out was really big and I thought it was good,” said Kallhoff.  “We’ve all worked really hard in the offseason and we’re working hard right now and I think we all can handle ourselves on the field and we all can get better.  It’s a good opportunity for us.”

For Lee, knowing that the heat, the short bench and trying to beat the sunset, are taxing on any team as they move forward to Wednesday’s game at Central.

“They’re mentally draining because it takes a lot of effort and energy, all the factors it takes a lot out of a team,” he said.  “To get through those, it’s really good.

“We made a lot of mistakes today and we can’t worry about trying to fix all of them tomorrow; we just got to try to fix some of them and we just keep applying that day-after-day.”

PHOTO GALLERY (PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD)