By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

PORTLAND, Ore.–  Santiam’s bats have awoken from it’s deep slumber Monday afternoon against Madison in the Northeast corner of the Rose City.

In a little over ten-and-a-half innings, the Senators exploded for 26 runs while their already stout defense held the Senators of Madison to three runs during that span.

“It’s extremely good having some momentum going into State and for next game on Wednesday” said Hunter BeDoya on the bats waking up.  “Having our bats alive and powerful.”

12 of those 26 runs came in game one as they had seven runs in the third inning to build a 10-0 lead with Caleb Clevenger striking out seven in his complete game win.

Though Madison avoided the Ten Run Rule by scoring two over the fifth and sixth innings in the 10-2 doubleheader Santiam victory, the bats carried over to the second game with four runs in the first inning of game two.

Ryan Brown got out of a runners in scorer position in the first inning with one run allowed in a game that was called due to darkness with the Senators leading the Madison Senators 14-1.

“I mean I’ve never played a game this dark at this time,” smiled BeDoya.  “But it was a pretty fun experience but it sucked we ended it after the third inning.”

The lone blemish against the Senators Monday was the four errors they committed in Game One.

They know if they want to make a run at the State Championship in Central Point next week and have a chance for Regionals in Montana if they win the State Championship, they need to limit those errors against better oppositions.

“I think we can sharpen them up by keeping our heads in the game and not slacking off,” said Greyson Hanowell.  “It seems to be the problem right now.  But having our heads in the game and focusing on what we need to do ahead of time.”

Now that they have both up and going again, the plan is to keep the bats going against a tough Marist defense Wednesday that is hard to hit against.

But the Boys of Summer know that if they take the same approach as they did Monday, they’ll be fine on the road Wednesday and when they head to Southern Oregon next week.

“The same way we did today,” said BeDoya. “Base hit after base hits, the ball will fall and we’ll do our jobs defensively too.”

“Our hitting game was pretty good today compare to the past couple (of) games,” added Hanowell.  “So I think we can take that offense to State then we’ll be able to do pretty well with that.”

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PHOTO GALLERY (PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD)