Sports

Saints victory comes from close call at the plate

By Jake Fray

After going winless in their previous four games, the Saints baseball team brought home a victory Tuesday by beating George Fox’s JV team 13-12 in the tenth inning.

“The game shouldn’t have been as close as it was,” said head coach Bryan Donohue. “We kept letting them back into the game.”

After being down early 2-1, the Saints rallied to take the lead 10-4 in the sixth inning.
“It was a walk-fest,” said Donohue. “Our pitching was atrocious.”

The Bruins soon made their own comeback, tying the game in the ninth to send the game into extra innings.
“I felt a strong sense of urgency,” said Donohue. “We got Billy (Klontz) to second. I was like, ‘What can we do to get him home?’”

Soon Donohue noticed that the pitcher for George Fox had a slow delivery to the plate and put a stopwatch on him to see how long it took for the pitcher to throw the ball.

According to Donohue, when George Fox went to talk to their pitcher, he told Klontz he thought he could steal third base. “And sure enough, he did on the next pitch,” said Donohue.

The next pitch the ball was hit to the third baseman and Klontz froze up waiting to see where he would throw the ball. “Billy ran as soon as the third baseman threw the ball and he was safe by a step,” said Donohue, and the Saints had their third win of the season.

“Our hitting was outstanding on all parts,” said Donohue, “but we just struggled with location on our pitches.”
During spring break the Saints will take on Edmonds and Tacoma, facing off against both teams twice during the break in Gresham at Oslund field.

“Edmonds always has a really strong program. We just need to play the right way against them,” said Donohue. “As for Tacoma, they are always competitive. It is a team we should definitely beat.”

With conference play looming around the corner, the Saints are starting to hit their stride, according to Donohue.

“We have been close in every game,” he said. “We are building in pre-season to get hot at the right time. Right now we found a way to win games.”