By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ore.–  After the nerves settled down and the Silverton baseball team found their groove, the young squad looked quite solid out there on the diamond Wednesday afternoon at the Hamlin Sports Complex in their 7-1 defeat to South Eugene.  The Foxes defense held the Axe to three runs over the course of the final six innings after surrendering four first inning runs.  Carson Waples started a spark with a quick out in the second inning, Sawyer Enderle built upon that soon after, James Brady and Nolan Horner to close out the game on the bump and their defense finding their footing behind them with every pitch.

Silverton’s offense had runners on base, two in scoring position in the second inning and one on third in the next inning, but could only draw one in during the seventh off a Horner single that broke the shutout.  For a squad that only saw a handful of outdoor practices to this point, they’re adjusting well as they’re picking up those live reps with more to come the next two days at the Springfield Tournament to build upon from Wednesday’s game.

“It kept up with our mental state of thinking that we can do it and keeping up with this team.  (South Eugene) is a really good ballclub and I believe we can play better than that if we got the sticks going…it was really good because seeing those live reps really helped and will get us prepared for tomorrow,” Enderle said. “Tomorrow should be a good game too.  Today, after that first inning, I feel like we had a good run and got all of our nerves out and stuff.”

Enderle struck out four in two-and-a-third innings.  Waples and Horner each struck out two.for Silverton, who will return to play Milwaukie at 5:30pm at Hamlin Sports Complex.  Horner also led the Foxes with two hits with Brady and Logan Hendrickson each adding a hit apiece.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald