By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  This was just one of those games that you wonder how it got so wonky, but it made for an interesting softball game though at the end of the day Monday evening.

32 runs were scored between Stayton and Marist with the Eagles ending up winning 18-14 by game’s end.  At one point weirdly enough, the Spartans led 10-3 going into the bottom half of the fourth inning following a seven-run inning.  Momentum was in their favor only to see the Eagles quickly tie it up going into the fifth following first-year Head Coach Ryan Borde calling the team in before their first of two seven inning outputs offensively.

“Our coach told us, ‘I know you girls are better than this.  We just got to go out there and play like you know how to play’ and we did.  I think we did a good job cleaning up some of the errors we had in the field and found our bats.  Our mindset was, go out there and show the people who the Stayton Eagles are,” Christine McCants said.

The Eagles turned to sophomore Kenzi Beougher in the fifth inning, who turned two shutout innings pitching.  That helped allow Stayton to regain the lead for the first time since the start of the third inning and had a chance to force the ten-run rule with the bases loaded in the six, leading 18-10 before Marist got out of the jam.  A 15-run streak that the Eagles were on to turn a one seven-run deficit into an eight-run lead going into the seventh inning.

This game was madness and crazy to say the least as this contest looked like a football score instead of a softball game on the board.  It was a mindset coming off of the fourth inning.  They wanted to show, against the squad that ended their season last Spring in the 4A State Semis that they belong with both teams going out for perhaps one last inning of play.

“It was a really good game.  We came back and fought our all.  Everyone came back and made good plays, we tried our best.  At the beginning we struggled a little bit, but we brought the mentality and we did it,” describes Beougher.  “As soon as that (bottom of the fourth) inning hit, everyone was like, ‘ok, we can do this’.  Like we all were like, ‘we got this’.”

But Marist too had that same sediment going through their heads as they slowly got runners on bases and worked at chipping away at the lead.  Four runs would score before a McCants-Madden Pfahler 8-5 double play, Center Field to Third base, got the first two outs on the board.  The double-play was followed by Mylie Walker turning a ground ball into the final out of the game to seal the 18-14 victory   A big win to start the week as Yamhill-Carlton comes to town Wednesday at 3:30pm.

“I’m happy.  There are definitely some things we need to work on, but everyone played really good.  That double-play by Christine, that was pretty awesome.  There were a lot of good plays…I’m happy, but there’s things that we can work on,” Beougher said.

“Never stop off the gas pedal.  Like we were saying out here in our circle, we just kept going.  We can’t stop kind of thing.  We got a mindset that it’s 0-0 at the end of every inning.  If we go out there and score ten runs, we’re still going out there and always thinking that there’s more that we can do.  We’re not finished, leave everything on the field,” adds McCants.

Beougher, Kenzi Hollenbeck and Jessica Rule all drove in 3RBI’s apiece.  Riley McCalment drove in 2RBI’s for the Eagles in the win.  Daphine Heckel, Paige Doerr and Packer Doerr each had 3RBI’s for Marist in the game.  The Spartans play host to Cascade Wednesday for a 5pm first pitch.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald