By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

CENTRAL POINT, Ore.–  It was a season to remember for the Santiam Senators.

Entering the State Playoffs, they were 16-10 and finished second in the Area 2 standings, second to North Marion.

Though they lost and were eliminated in Day 2 of the playoffs to those same Huskies they played twice in the regular season; they have learned a lot from their experiences playing under the always tough Ron Caligure and his coaching staff of Greg Fergunson and Chris Brown.

“This journey was really amazing with the team and everything,” said JJ Avila.  “We came a long way from not knowing  what was going to happen, we just had our head up high and put a smile on our faces and we did what the team knew what we could do best and went out and played the game of baseball.

“It’s the game that we love, and everyone having the positive mindset’s going in.”

Avila had one of the craziest plays in the outfield for the Senators versus West Linn at West Linn that helped Santiam get into a position to clinch a playoff position a few days later in The Dalles.

The Dalles, against the Hood Valley River High School squad out there, the team stayed the course against the adversity of a hostile crowd on and off the diamond as they clinched a playoff spot with a hard fought sweep of the Carson Oilers on July 16.

Leading up to that point, the Senators had started the season on a tear.

Sweeps of Cleveland and Roosevelt.  Game two against Cleveland featured a eight run inning as they took that sweep 11-7 and 13-0.

Their lone loss was against the Triple-A Newport, a 14-3 loss on June 16.  Against the Café Tide on July 6, the Senators dropped seven runs on Newport and held a 8-7 lead mid game before the Tide came back to take the game 17-9.

It was the most runs allowed by Santiam all year and the third of five times the Senators would allow ten or more runs all year.

They defeated Rex Putnam in a crazy rain show, time-limit reaching showdown in the DeMarini Wood Bat Tournament.  That adventure was interesting to say the least as Santiam took the number one seed before losing to the Perth Heat out of Australia.

Faced with a three-game losing streak in the McMinnville Tournament, the Boys in Red rally for a emotional 9-5 victory over Mountain View that saw a relay from the outfield to Ryan Brown at shortstop and to Greyson Hanowell for an inning ending and a momentum saving out at home as they entered what is called, ‘Hell Week’.

North Marion twice and West Linn once to decide the League Title as the Lions, Senators and Huskies were within a game of another.  If that.

Though they were swept by North, they got the win versus the Lions to have that tiebreaker on West Linn.

All they needed were two wins over the two doubleheaders, (four games total), against The Dalles and Madison.  They got all four.

They allowed the back-ups to get some valuable playing time versus Marist as they enter the playoffs 16-10.

They drew the host Central Point, consisting of all but two being seniors.  They hung around for the first three innings before hurting themselves with errors.

Against their rivals Huskies, they cut a 5-0 deficit to 5-3 and were in striking distance down 6-3 entering the fifth before North Marion used six runs to seal both teams fates in the playoffs.

“It was fun when it lasted,” said Brown.  “We played hard, we made our goal of making it to State, they’re really some good teams up there.  It’s been a rollercoaster, up and down.  It was a good feeling knowing that we can compete with those guys, we just need to get our heads into the game better.”

For Gieselman, the recent Gervais Graduate knows this burns to see his prep career come to an end like this, he knows he’ll be ready for the challenges ahead.

“It was a lot of fun, I believe that this was the best summer I’ve had,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of these guys, they battled until the end.  It was a great experience and I’m just glad to be apart of this.

“I’m planning on not being done yet.  I’m going to try to play somewhere, probably going to play at Chemeketa for now and see where it goes from there.”

As Brown and Avila go back to their respective High Schools, they know there were lessons they can take away from this.

“I need to take them and know that the North Marion team, who I don’t really like and who I really want to beat, and I need to tell the younger kids what I know and what I experienced through this trip,” said Brown.

Avila looked at summer ball as a individual as he takes lessons from the summer to his junior season.

“Playing summer ball it was a lot of fun because the amount of games I got to get in at as an individual, I want to view as another season as well as the team aspect of it was to get along with other people and build new friendships,” said Avila.  “And going back to High School it was going to be a lot different competition wise.  All the competition isn’t all going to be there like we did with summer ball.”

As mentioned above, Caligure was always tough as he tries to get the best out of the kids.  Though intimidating, he always wanted to see these kids fulfill their potential on and off the field as young leaders.

As his team sat around the tables at Bobbio’s Pizzeria in Central Point, he shared a message that he hopes that his kids takes away from this experience this summer.

“Well, I would say,” said Caligure. “Keep playing baseball.  They got three or four or five more years to play baseball, keep playing.  You can always improve and get better and maybe get to the State Playoffs for your High School Team or another Legion Team or whatever.

“Just keep on playing the game of baseball, it’s a great game.”

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