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Saints' baseball team slashes Cougars 11-1, 1-0 in doubleheader
The Advocate
The Saints baseball team improved to a league-best 18-2 (25-4 overall) after beating the Clackamas Community College Cougars in a doubleheader April 25.
Freshman Taylor Ard wasted no time at the plate in the bottom of the first inning, hitting his team-leading seventh home run, a three-run blast.
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Ard also leads the Saints in RBIs (33) and batting average (.495) and continued to help the offensive threat of the Saints in the wins over the Cougars.
Runs kept pouring in and the pitching of sophomore Dylan Jones (5-1) meshed well with the offense in the 10-run limit victory over the Cougars in game one (11-1 in seven innings). Jones lowered his ERA to 2.63 and held the Cougars to one run and four hits in seven innings.
Sophomore left-fielder Mike Cero hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, which was part of a five-run inning for the Saints.
After losing the doubleheader, Clackamas Head Coach Robin Robinson gave praise to the Saints lineup.
“They are the best club around,” said Robinson. “They shouldn’t lose a game. They are loaded with talent. Baseball is a fickle game; it goes to who performs that day.”
There was a major turnaround from game one to game two as the Saints only managed one run in a 1-0 victory. Whatever Robinson told his Cougars between games worked, as they held the Saints powerful offense to three hits in seven innings.
“It is a new game,” said Robinson. “We might have tired them out (in the first game), Our pitcher (Casey Albright) threw a great game and we got to Struck for nine hits. That should have been our win.”
MHCC Head Coach Bryan Donohue wasn’t lying when he said Struck finds a way to win ball games. Struck helped himself out in the top of the sixth inning when the bases were loaded and no outs for the Cougars. Struck retired the next three batters, including two strikeouts in a row, to get out of the mess.
The Saints scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when sophomore centerfielder Eric Copenhagen hit a fly ball to left field with the bases loaded and Ard tagged up to score.
The Saints scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when sophomore centerfielder Eric Copenhagen hit a fly ball to left field with the bases loaded and Ard tagged up to score.
“We took a gamble,” said Donohue. “It might have been the only chance to put up a run since our bats weren’t going. He (Ard) did a good job of getting down the line to win the ball game.”
Donohue gave credit to Albright for pitching a great game against his Saints offense that is batting .337 as a team.
“He threw well,” said Donohue. “Great off-speed pitches for strikes. Not taking anything away from their pitcher, but we felt as a team that we got ourselves out at the plate and weren’t hitting well as an offense.”
Struck improved to a team-best 7-0 with a 1.29 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 42 innings.
The Cougars came into the doubleheader with only nine position players due to injuries, players quitting and “drug” related issues where players were asked to leave the team, Robinson said
“The crew now is thin but great,” he said. “No one complains about not playing.”
The Saints have made a complete turnaround since last season when the Cougars won all six games, including four wins at Oslund Field. The Saints have won all four meetings this year against the Cougars including two at home and two on the road.
The Saints head to Eugene Saturday to play the Lane Community College Titans in a doubleheader at 1 p.m.