Saints weather Storm

As the Saints enter their final series of the regular season, one can’t help but look ahead to what’s in store, beginning May 26: The NWAC baseball championship tournament in Longview, Wash.

Currently saddled with a No. 6 Rating Percentage Index, or RPI, in conference, Mt. Hood travels to Coos Bay for a four-game set with Southwestern Oregon this weekend. The matchup looms large, as Lane sits just one game ahead of the second-place Saints in the South, and Linn-Benton just two games behind. Coincidentally, the Saints have a higher RPI than both the Titans (10) and Roadrunners (14).

The Mt. Hood men beat back the Chemeketa Storm, three games to one, in a home-and-home series May 6-7, and now hope the Storm can turn around and pound the Titans. If the Saints can take care of business against SWOCC and Chemeketa wins at least once against Lane, it will give Mt. Hood a shot at a regional title, which would be its seventh during head coach Bryan Donohue’s regime.

In any event, the Saints stand a solid chance of advancing to the playoffs, with the top two teams in each division advancing, followed by the next best eight in RPI to round out the tournament of 16. In true tournament fashion, the higher seeds play the lower seeds from top to bottom, in a round-robin, four-day extravaganza at David Story Field.

In the home-and-home series vs. Chemeketa last weekend, The Saints poured on the offense in Salem, routing the Storm 25-11 over the first two games on Friday. They started off strong at home on Saturday, winning their third game in a row, 9-5, before Chemeketa pushed back and limited the Saints’ offense to salvage the last game of the series, 2-1.

SWOCC is only 5-15 in the region, compared to the Saints’ 14-6 mark, so MHCC has a golden opportunity to capitalize on the last of the regular season schedule by preying on a weaker opponent. They have the confidence, the ability, the instruction, now they just need to see an open path leading to glory.

Advocate Staff