Withnell Falls In State Opener

By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

ROSEBURG, Ore.– The Withnell Dodger defense held the powerhouse Eugene offense to three runs in the Dodgers 3-0 defeat to the Challengers to start the American Legion Triple-A State Playoffs Saturday.

The Sprague Trio of Jack Muth at pitcher, Eli Lowe at third and Taylor Brennaman in Right Field, the three set the pace in holding Eugene in check in hopes for their offense against Chruchill’s Isaac Evaniew.

“Overall defensively we did really well, we had a few mistakes here-and-there that cost one-or-two runs, but overall we played really good defense. Our offense needs to come through a little more, their pitcher was shoving and we couldn’t find hits,” Brennaman said.

Withnell’s Jack Muth delivers a pitch as the Sprague-grad struck out three in six-and-a-third innings (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)

Withnell collected five hits, Western Christian’s Rylan Webster having two of them, and had runners in scoring position in the second inning before Evaniew extinguished the threat in-route to ten strikeouts in the shutout victory.

“We just need to hit off any pitcher that we see. Whether it’s a dude like (Evaniew) or not, we just need to back our pitchers and our defense up with some hits,” Lowe said.

“We just got to come out with more energy than we did. We came out in the Top of the seventh inning with a lot of energy and we needed to come out with that from the first hitter. We need to get bat on ball more than we did. You can’t win with ten strikeouts. We need to get more bats on the ball, score some runs to have our chances.”

Withnell plays Springfield at 10am in a win-or-go-home game.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald