By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Valley Baseball Club set the found their groove early against the Olympian Baseball Club in their 11-2 victory Saturday afternoon and had carried it over to their 10-3 win over the Stayton Bandits in the following game. Entering the final week of the summer season on a five-game winning streak and winners of nine of their last ten games.
Their pitching staff, seeing Ricky Alvarado (South Salem), Danner Salisbury (Stayton), Chase Reynolds (West Albany), Tyler Minney (South Salem) and Dylan Kleinschmidt (Kennedy) combine for 23 strikeouts in 14 innings. Salisbury leading the way with eight strikeouts in four innings against the Olys.
Their offense produced 21 runs on 27 hits in the two wins behind Salem Academy’s Brandon Reed’s 4-for-5, 5RBI day in the Blue Machine doubleheader victory.
“It was a good day of baseball for sure for our team,” said Reed. “It was 100-percent stellar. Pitchers came out throwing strikes and outfielders made plays, we did phenomenal, I think. 100-percent across the board.”
Minney took over for Reynolds entering the third inning against the Bandits and held the Stayton offense to one run in his three innings of work. The run coming in the fifth inning in which the Saxon arm shut the door on the Bandit bases loaded threat in a then 7-3 game.
“It was good because I felt like I was struggling a little bit but knowing that they scored one run kind of calmed me down and I knew I had my defense to back me up,” said Minney, who also drove in 2RBI’s in the doubleheader.
Valley plated three runs in the bottom half of the fifth as Cameron Louie (RBI Single) and Reed (2RBI Double) drove in runs before the Trojans Kleinschmidt finished off the last two innings.
Olys Finished Long Week. The Olympians played games six and seven Saturday morning, splitting with Central and Valley, defeating Central 7-5 before falling to Valley. Rory Lampe hit a solo home run in the fifth inning as the Olys finished their seven-games-in-six-days stretch 4-3.
Bandits Split. Stayton bounced back from their 10-3 loss with Valley with a 15-0 win over Central. Joe Alley led the way hitting 3-for-4 with 4RBI’s in the doubleheader, all 4RBI’s coming against Central in the five-inning game. Wyatt Connally led the Bandit pitching staff with six strikeouts. Cascade’s Caleb Boyles drove in 3RBI’s for the Bandits.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
