By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

INDEPENDENCE, Ore.–  2021 West Salem-grad Andrew Todd has returned to the State of Oregon after spending some time in Texas playing baseball with the Texas Post Grad this past season.  The exposure to some good talent at the next level with the likes of Murray State College and Texas Wesleyan, all without losing any of his eligibility to play as the squad went 16-15-1 on the season.

“It was fun.  It was baseball every day.  A lot of games and a lot of exposure to college guys, it helped a lot,” Todd said.  “It definitely helped a lot.  I got college experience and that’ll help out next year with Chemeketa.  Other than that, just exposure to good guys over there….I was playing Junior College and NAIA’s down there.”

Todd has returned home this Summer, his Texas Post Grad season wrapping up on April 28 when they split with Dallas Christian College, and is currently playing on the Post 20 Dirtbags based out of Central High School in Monmouth.  The former Titan DH’d in their rain-shortened game against the Portland Eastside Thursday afternoon and drove in a run in the bottom of the fourth inning.  It was one of two RBI hits in the inning as Dallas’ Chase Brushe too drove in a run earlier in the inning.

Post 20 built a 4-0 lead as Brayden Woods (McMinnville) and Carlo Cervantes-Molina (McKay) too drove in runs an inning later.  But as the rain began to roll in and picked up, Eastside took advantage of a few miscues to knot the game up at four in the top half of the sixth.  The Dirtbags in turn took advantage of similar miscues in the bottom half of the inning before the game was called with Post 20 leading 8-4.  The two squads will meet again Saturday up at the Marshall Campus.

“I think we did great.  We started off slowly, I think it was the second or third inning that we came and got two,” Todd said.  “They came back, they tied it up and we came back and put up some more runs.  We got the lead and unfortunately it got rained out.  We just gotta keep going strong and build as a team.  More team bonding, we got some new guys and it’s fun to see who plays where and to bond with some new guys.”

The Dirtbags host the Emerald Challengers (formerly Eugene), for a doubleheader Sunday before heading to Tigard on June 18 and to Ron Tonkin Field two days later before opening Area 3 League Play on June 27 against the Corvallis Marketmen at home.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald