By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.—It was hard for sure to follow the performance that McNary’s Danny Okada had in seven-innings of work.
The Celtic Senior struck out four over the first seven innings of the game, but his 105-pitch count had knocked the Green Squad’s pitcher out of the game going into the eighth with both Green and the Blue squad tied at four apiece.
“Danny pitched amazing. All game he really didn’t give them anything,” said Scio’s Kolton Ellis. “Other than that, I knew I had a defense behind me and they’ll back me up. So it wasn’t much pressure.
“It was good that we were able to rely on our defense. It’s definitely a change, it’s great though.”
Ellis came in for relief for Okada in the bottom of the eighth. Outside of the top half of the first inning where the blue squad plated three runs, two runs coming from Western Christian’s Owen Stalnaker’s stand-up triple, and the top of the second where Green tied it up with a three-run inning of their own, both had traded a run a piece over the remainder of the game.
The Blue squad had gone to one of their aces in the Pioneer’s Stalnaker, but the Western Christian arm had put himself in a pickle walking his first two batters before picking up his first out via strikeout.
Green just need a run to break the gridlock, however Sprague’s Dom Krummen brought his two base-runners home with an RBI single. Joking with his baseball brethren on the field that the big man wasn’t going to try to steal second as he was gassed at first base beating out the throw.
“It was intense, we were all trying really hard to get something going. We got some runners on, luckily I came on and got one through the first base-hole,” said Krummen. “He was playing kind of close to the bag, so I went op-po with it. It was a good little hit.”
Ellis settled in and got the three outs needed for the save with a fly out to start the inning and a strikeout of Dillan Brady to end the game in favor of the Green team 6-4 Friday at Holland Youth Park.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
