PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 7, 2017
KEIZERTIMES.COM
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Left: McNary senior Josiah Gilbert earned the win against North Salem, striking out eight over six innings while allowing just three hits and two runs. Right: Riley Hays was 2-for-3 with an RBI
single in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Celtics win league, home opener
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary senior Josiah Gilbert
needed two innings to get in a
rhythm.
But once he did, the Celtics rolled
to a 10-2 victory over North Sa-
lem to begin league play on Tuesday,
April 4 at home.
“There’s been quite a few strug-
gles that I’ve had to go through with
health, my stomach, my throat, my
shoulder, trying to battle back into
the game so it felt good to actually
fi nd myself after that second inning
and really pound zone,” Gilbert said.
“It felt great.”
McNary fell behind 2-0 in the top
of the second inning as the Vikings
scored two runs on two hits and two
walks. With two outs in the inning,
Gilbert appeared to pick off a North
Salem runner at fi rst but another Vi-
king raced home, just beating the tag.
With two runners on, fi rst base-
man Riley Hays helped Gilbert get
out of the second with a diving catch
in foul territory.
The Celtics then quickly an-
swered at the plate.
Daniel Johnson singled to lead off
the bottom of the second and scored
on a ground ball to shortstop by Col-
lin Wentworth. Jacob Jackson then
drove in Gilbert with an RBI single
to left fi eld to tie the game 2-2.
On the mound, Gilbert began
mowing North Salem hitters down,
retiring 11 in a row, including fi ve
straight strikeouts, before allowing a
double to right fi eld with one out in
the top of the sixth. However, Gilbert
struck out the next batter and got a
ground ball to shortstop to end the
threat.
“I just realized I was in my own
head, thinking too much,” Gilbert
said. “I was rushing it. I just need to
relax and calm down and they just
kept telling me in the game to take
a breath and take it nice and slow.
I found zone and made some good
pitches. About the fourth inning is
when everything started working.
After that I was just feeling it.”
Gilbert was also able to pitch with
a lead after the Celtics scored two
runs in the bottom of the third, three
in the fourth, two in the fi fth and
one more in the sixth.
Gilbert went six innings, striking
out eight while allowing just three
hits and two runs to earn the win.
McNary senior Jonah Geist got
the fi nal three outs.
“When Josiah was able to settle
down and get past that emotional
start of the fi rst league game he was
really pretty good,” McNary head
coach Larry Keeker said. “His tem-
po is kind of his key. Sometimes he
gets going too fast but when he’s got
good tempo, he can be really good.
He had a really good rhythm going.”
The Celtics had 11 hits from nine
different batters.
Hays was 2-for-3 with an RBI
and run scored. Jackson was 2-for-
2 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Matthew Ismay scored two runs.
Joshua Benson, Tyler Ellertson, John-
son, Wentworth and Geist also had
RBIs in the rout.
“I liked our at bats tonight,” Keek-
er said. “We had some really good at
bats from a lot of guys up and down
the lineup. We were able to string at
bats together and consistently score
in those middle innings, which put
the pressure on North Salem.”
The win came after McNary went
0-4 in Arizona over spring break, in-
cluding a 4-3 loss to Victor Valley,
Calif. on Friday, March 31.
“We didn’t play particularily well
but we played two teams that were
really high quality teams,” Keeker
said. “It was a great trip. The weather
was fantastic. We had a great time. We
got to hang out for the week, doing
things as a team, learning about each
other, those are all just as important
as practicing baseball.”
“Team bonding, team chemistry
that you create on that trip is huge,”
Gilbert added. “You feel it later in
the season.”
McNary is scheduled to be back
at home on Friday, April 7 against
West Albany at 5 p.m.
Childress, Perez lead tennis team
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary tennis coach Gar-
rett Jensen was surprised at the
number of girls that came out
after the Lady Celts graduated
nearly half their team last sea-
son.
“We’ve got a lot of girls,
22,” Jensen said. “We picked
up just as many as we lost.”
McNary is once again led
by junior Hannah Childress,
who fi nished third in the
Greater Valley Conference and
then lost in the second round
of the 6A state tournament last
season.
While the goal is to im-
prove on that mark, it won’t be
easy for Childress, who must
go through West Salem senior
Anya Gerasimova, West Albany
sophomore Ceanne Elliot and
South Salem sophomore Abby
Fedor.
Childress lost to Gerasimo-
va 3-6, 1-6 on March 23.
“Anya’s stepped up her
game this past year,” Jensen
said. “All four of them are re-
ally good players so we have
a strong district at our No. 1
singles level.”
While rain has prevented
the Lady Celts from com-
pleting two of its fi rst three
scheduled matches against
McMinnville and West Salem,
McNary did fall to South Sa-
lem 7-1 on March 22.
Childress had the only win,
defeating freshman Abby Fe-
dor 7-6, 6-2 at No. 1 singles.
The surprise of the team
is Katherine Perez, who has
made the jump from playing
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary sophomore Faith Danner didn’t allow a run at Forest
Grove on Tuesday, April 4.
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Katherine Perez has jumped from No. 3 doubles to 2 singles this season.
No. 3 doubles most of last sea-
son to No. 2 singles.
“My dad got me a coach
over the summer and he too
would coach me because we’d
watch Youtube videos to-
gether,” said Perez, who got
a membership at Courthouse
Fitness over the summer after
giving tennis a try for the fi rst
time last spring.
“I was very impressed
when we got to the fi rst cou-
ple of practices and she made
a pretty big jump this past year,
a dramatic increase in her”
Jensen said. “She just gets the
ball back. She’s a really solid
player.”
Senior Dianna Cervantes
played No. 3 singles against
South Salem but much of Mc-
Nary’s team is freshmen and
sophomores. Freshman Av-
ery Haymowicz was at No. 4
singles while fi ve of the eight
doubles players were sopho-
mores.
“It’s great because that’s a
couple of years that they can
develop but a lot of new peo-
ple and a lot of new faces on
varsity,” Jensen said. “A lot of
it’s pretty basic, too. It’s learn-
ing the scores and learning
where to stand on the court.”
The Lady Celts next home
match is Thursday, April 13 at
North Salem.
Lady Celts shut
out Forest Grove
McNary’s softball team
opened Greater Valley confer-
ence play with a 3-0 win at
Forest Grove on Tuesday, April
4.
Sophomore Faith Danner
pitched all seven innings, al-
lowing only four hits.
Freshman Alex Cepeda had
half of the Lady Celts hits, go-
ing 4-for-4 at the plate.
Nadia Witt led off the game
and scored on a ground ball to
second base by Danner to give
McNary a quick 1-0 lead.
However, the Lady Celts
weren’t able to strike again un-
til the top of the sixth when
Cepeda doubled on a line drive
to left fi eld and then scored on
a Haley Ebner RBI single.
Ebner then scored on an
RBI double off the bat of
Emma Kinler to stretch the
lead to 3-0.
The Lady Celts are back
home Friday, April 7 against
North Salem at 5 p.m.