Warrenton's baseball team walks off with a win
· Yahoo Sports
What better way to end your last home game of the baseball season than with a walk-off.
That’s what the Warrenton Warriors did Wednesday against Lakeview High School in the first round of the 3A state baseball playoffs. In what ended up being a compelling battle between the 5th-seeded Warriors and 12th-seeded Honkers, ended with Warrenton’s current hottest hitter wrapping things up.
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Junior Ryan Palmer had his third and final hit in the seventh inning to bring home Dylan Ballard and send the hometown crowd into a frenzy. The 2-1 victory will see Warrenton travel to Eastern Oregon to take on a scorching hot Vale team. Vale is 21-4 on the season and the team has won 18 straight games after starting off the year 3-4.
Warrenton’s head coach Lennie Wolfe was pleased with his team’s performance. “That’s a great playoff game,” said Wolfe. “It had everything you could ask for from a quality opponent — and of your own kids. That was fun.”
For those who got to witness the game, coach Wolfe’s words ring true. Fans got see both Aaron Neahring and Andrew Greer shove on the mound. Plus, each team had a lot of runners stranded on base. There was a walk-off hit — and two of the coaches had local ties.
Honkers coach Andy Rygg attended Astoria High School from 1998-2001 and actually played baseball under current Warrenton Athletic Director and coach Ryker Thornton before moving to Lakeview. Despite being a No. 12 seed, the Honkers were one of the only teams to defeat 3A No. 2 Cascade Christian — and they also knocked off Brookings Harbor earlier this year. With a difficult schedule, Lakeview was well prepared for this game and pushed Warrenton to the limit.
In fact, Lakeview had the better scoring opportunities in the game. In back-to-back innings, the Honkers had a runner on third with less than two outs and were not able to score either time. This was due to fantastic defense from Warrenton and a call by one of the Warriors assistant coaches.
“Coach Ron Dyer called one of the pickoffs where we picked off the guy at third. That’s an assistant coach doing an incredible job,” Wolfe said. “It took everyone.”
The Warriors scored one run in the first and then had to hang on the rest of the way. Lakeview proceeded to get a run in the sixth, only to see the Warriors walk things off in the bottom half of the seventh. Leadoff hitter Ballard got hit by a pitch, senior Zephan Pierce laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt and then the three hole hitter Palmer continued swinging a hot bat as he lined a base hit into right field. Palmer also picked up the victory as he relieved Neahring to get the final out of the seventh inning.
Though the Warriors got to celebrate their playoff victory with their home fans, the boys didn’t have a very long layover — they had a game set for Friday afternoon against Vale.
“Vale are an awfully good team,” Wolfe said. “We need to go there — and the goal is to be playing our best ball at that point and see how it goes.”
While the score was not available at press time, you can check the Oregon School Athletic Association website: osaa.org.
Warrenton softball loses contact
The No. 13 seeded Warrenton girls softball team kept in contact for most of the time during Wednesday afternoon’s game against Dayton.
After winning the first ever playoff game in school history on Monday, the Warriors looked to keep their magical season going against No. 4 seed Dayton. The Pirates entered Wednesday with a 20-5 record. The five losses were to some of the best teams in Oregon including: 4A teams Scappoose and Astoria as well as 3A powerhouses Scio and Yamhill-Carlton, plus Shadow Hills High School of Indio, California.
The Warriors came in as heavy underdogs, but kept things were close through four innings. Warrenton trailed just 4-0 going into the fifth inning and after scoring two runs in the top of the fifth, looked to be in contention for a late game upset. But a two run blast by pitcher Charly Upmeyer opened the flood gates as the Pirates scored six runs in the fifth inning and one more in the sixth to end up winning, 11-2.
While defeated, senior Natalie Pike still had a great performance. The senior ended her final game as a Warrrior with two hits and one run batted in. Pike is now set to retire her Warriors jersey and put on a Clackamas Community College softball jersey next spring. Sophomore trio Natalie Davis, Hannah Leavitt and Scarlet Anderson had the other hits for Warrenton.
Dayton had a big game at the plate as they accumulated 12 total hits with two home runs, one by Upmeyer. The other was a first inning shot by catcher Sophie Sweeney.
The loss closes the books on a historic season for the Warrenton softball girls as they finish 16-11. With a strong junior core — and both Banks and Valley Catholic moving up to 4A next season — the Warriors could very well be in the pole position for a 3A Coastal Range League championship.