McNary’s Custer Commits To Clackamas Community College

By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.—A week after her commitment to Clackamas Community College, McNary’s Shay Custer was back on the diamond again with her sister, KJ, and the NW Vandals 18G team.

“Oh I love it. We’re pretty close in age so growing up we got to play here-and-there. I’m really hoping that we get our High School season and get to play at McNary together, it’ll be really fun,” said Custer.

For Custer, an second-team All-Mountain Valley Conference honoree as a sophomore with the Celtics as an outfielder, a Cougar program that went 27-27 in 2019 and 4-2 in 2020 before the cancelation of the season in a tough NWAC South conference.

“It’s really exciting and I’m glad that I did. I like the campus and the coaches, they’re all super nice. I’m looking forward to it,” said Custer.

The NW Vandals outscored their opposition 35-4 in their two victories Saturday afternoon at Wallace Marine Park (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)

The Vandals went 2-0 in the first day of the Cherry City College Exposure event at Wallace Marine Park Saturday afternoon, combining to defeat the Oregon Blaze Gold and the Eugene Thunder by a combined score of 35-4. The older Custer went 1-for-2 with 4RBI’s and the younger Custer was 1-for-2 with 2RBI’s in the wins.

“I think we did a lot better this weekend coming off of last weekend. Coming off of last weekend, we were coming off a little bit slow and we bounced back,” said Custer.

West Salem’s Reagan Davis launched a Grand Slam, finishing the day with 7RBI’s on 3-for-4 hitting. Bend’s Alli Parker finished with 5RBI’s on 5-for-5 hitting and five strikeouts in two innings.

In their final inning of the day against the Lighting however, Ridgeview’s Kiana Nakamura made an appearance in the circle. In 23 pitches, the ‘Change-Up Specialist’ in Nakamura recovered from giving up an early home run, surrendering two walks in an otherwise solid inning for the Raven infielder.

“It was super exciting, a little nerve-racking but I kept it together pretty well,” said Nakamura with a smile.

Nakamura herself went 4-for-6 with 2RBI’s as the Vandals play again at 8am and 9:45am at Wallace Marine Park.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald