By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.–  This is why you have two cracks at it for moments like this.

It was a tough way to start their game against the five-time defending State Champions Medford.  Forgettable honestly as an incredibly tight strike-zone, resulting in a 65-pitch first inning, allowed the Mustangs to plate eight-runs before innings end.

Cameron Kallhoff threw 42 of those pitches while Andrew Rogers collected the other 23 pitches of the tough first inning Sunday afternoon.

“I just felt like I just needed to throw strikes.  I feel like we have a good enough defense to that if I throw strikes that they’ll make moves for me,” said Rogers, who came into the game with an out in the first inning.

Rogers struck out five in almost five innings of work as the Sprague Senior found the right spots in the zone to challenge the Mustang batters, only allowing a second inning run coming out of the first inning as Withnell cut into the lead going into the sixth.

It was a 9-2 ball game at this point and the bats of the Dodgers, Max Long collected three of Withnell’s seven hits and Noah Ferguson collecting another two before Medford pulled away with their bats over the last two innings.

“This game left a lot of sour taste in everyone’s mouth, so we’re coming out tomorrow with that fire in us and I think that’ll do a lot.  Just knowing that we have to win to keep going and that should get to everyone, pump up everyone,” said Long.  “We try to not let the pressure get to us obviously.

“The pressure in games, but we just got to relax and play our baseball.  We play our best when we play our baseball.”

Withnell plays Hillsboro at 4pm in a loser’s out game at Kiger Stadium.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald