Jesuit pushes LO to 10 innings before losing title by 15-3

HILLSBORO — Everyone knows that baseball is a numbers game, and for a long time, it looked like the numbers were adding up very well indeed for the Jesuit OIBA team.

Jesuit came back from its lone loss in the OIBA state tournament with a key win over McMinnville on Saturday, then had Lake Oswego right in its clutches later that afternoon in the title contest at Hare Field.

But that’s when the numbers turned against Jesuit, and turned against it in a very big way.

Tied at 3-3 with Lake Oswego’s Northwest Realty Group since the sixth inning, Jesuit saw its state title hopes absolutely demolished in the top of the 10th. There, facing three different pitchers, Lake Oswego sent 17 batters to the plate, banged out six hits, took advantage of six walks and two hit batters, and poured across 12 runs to secure the championship by a commanding 15-3 margin.

“We had a lot of chances to come through and we didn’t - that’s all,” said Jesuit center fielder Christian Martinek, who went 1-for-3 in the loss. “That’s the way it is.”

“We played well. We did everything we had to to get to the championship game,” said second baseman Buddy Webb, who went 1-for-3 with one run scored and one RBI. “We ran out of arms.”

“I feel good about what happened even though it was a cruddy loss at the end,” said Jesuit pitcher Matt Decker, who pithed the game’s first nine innings and allowed three runs on six hits, eight walks and one hit batter while striking out three. “But that’s one of the lessons you learn in summer ball.”

Despite that disastrous final inning, Jesuit played very well the rest of the way and had a number of great chances late in the game that might have resulted in victory.

Lake Oswego took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Mitch McLaughlin and Harrison Reece drew back-to-back walks with no outs, moved up when Kenny Oyama was hit by a pitch, and both McLaughlin and Reece scored when Jesuit couldn’t handle Jack Anderson’s hard grounder to the right side.

LO then made it 3-0 in the third when Travis Sanders walked, moved up on back-to-back singles from McLaughlin and Reece, and scored when Tyler Campbell worked Decker for a bases-loaded walk.

But Decker, who threw more than 130 pitches on the day, settled into a groove after that, pitching six straight innings of scoreless ball and allowing just four hits in that period. Further, he gave his offense time to get untracked.

Jesuit did that, finally, in the bottom of the sixth when Trent Werner led off with a walk, Evan Haberle reached base on a Lake Oswego error and Webb followed with an RBI double down the left field line that cut the gap to 3-1. Decker then stepped up with a single to right that brought both Werner and Haberle home and tied the game at 3-3.

While neither team would score again until the 10th, there was a whole lot of excitement down the stretch, with Jesuit’s best chances to score in the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, Ken Carlson led off by reaching second on a Lake Oswego throwing error, and Thomas Vickers followed with a walk. But LO starter Sanders got Werner on a failed bunt attempt and Haberle on a fly ball, and after Webb walked, took care of Decker on a comebacker to end the threat.

In the eighth, Martinek and Marco Albanese hit back-to-back singles with one out and moved up on a wild pitch, but Sanders struck out Haberle and got Tucker Hamilton on a deep fly ball to right to keep the score at 3-3.

LO had its chances too, notably in the eighth when Oyama reached base on an error with one out, then stole two bases before Decker got Jack Kjemhus on a comebacker and Harrison Ramey on a grounder to first to preserve the tie.

But when Decker left after the ninth, so too it seemed did Jesuit’s chances at victory. In the 10th, eventually facing three different Jesuit pitchers, Lake Oswego ran wild. Ramey ripped a single off Webb’s foot to knock in two runs, Reid Penney singled home another and LO then added three straight bases-loaded walks to grab a 9-3 lead.

Another run came home on a hit batter with the bases full, Anderson collected an RBI on a grounder, a ninth came home on a wild pitch, Penney doubled again to plate two more, and Sanders added yet another double for the final 15-3 margin.

Despite the lopsided final score, Jesuit’s players remained focused on their summer successes and the lessons learned that they believe will benefit the team next spring.

“We played well all week,” Webb said. “I was impressed with our team this summer because, personally, I did not think we were going to be as strong as we were last year, but we went further than we did last summer.”

“That’s the only way to play — no regrets,” Decker said. OIBA play “counts a little bit, but it’s for the lessons that you learn that you can implement in spring ball.”

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