By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

ROSEBURG, Ore.– The Sprague young guns of Brady Muth and Hayden Laudette had themselves a game against the Sherwood Lobos Monday afternoon as the Salem Withnell Dodgers closed out the season Monday afternoon.

For Muth, the incoming senior had the two extra base hits for the Dodgers with a bases-loaded triple in the bottom half of the inning that helped aid the Salem Withnell Dodgers to take a 4-3 lead going into the second inning.  

Not to mention an RBI double in the bottom half of the third inning as the Dodgers and Lobos were all knotted up at six in what started off to be a high scoring affair in the American Legion Triple-A State elimination game at Legion Field in Roseburg on this day.  

“It’s intense.  The slightest mistake  can lead to blowing the game wide open.  At the end of the day, someone has to make the mistake and someone has to win and someone has to lose,” Muth said.  “We want more (moving forward).  We got a lot, but we want more.  We’re never going to rest and we’re going to come out next season ready to go with more intensity than ever.

“Iron sharpens Iron.  Everyone working together, we feed off of each other.  I think in this upcoming season, we’re going to feed off of each other more because we’re just a close, tight-knit group.  When one is succeeding, we’re all succeeding.”

Laudette came in during the third inning in relief for Tyler Minney and used his off-speed arsenal to keep the Sherwood bats off their game.  The incoming junior went five innings and only surrendered a hit in the seventh inning as the Lobos pulled ahead of the Dodgers 8-6 going into the final three outs of the game.

“Just a lot of off-speed, nothing too fast really,” described Laudette, who struck out five.  “It got intense, but I think I said within myself pretty good.  We did good (today), it was just a bad throw and a tough play, but we still made it through.”

Fun for sure as the Dodgers played 47 games over the course of the two month season as they reached Day 3 of the State Tournament.  Minney struck out two in two innings starting.  South Salem’s Cole Weiland and Sprague’s Avery Wilson each had an RBI on a hit.  The Olys Brandon Stinnett and Will Hassoun each had a hit in the season-ending defeat to the Lobos, closing out a fun Summer.

” It was a lot of fun (this Summer), a lot of games in a short time.  Definitely learned a lot and gotten better,” smiled Laudette.

“It was really fun.  Last year, I didn’t get to play and was trying to look for more innings in D1 so I came out here, had fun with the guys and as a team I think we came far and had a lot of fun,” adds Muth.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald