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PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 19, 2019 KEIZERTIMES.COM Celts win thriller to open conference play BY MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes It nearly took 48 hours to complete, but at the end of the day, the McNary baseball team got the win over Sprague in their Mountain Valley Confer- ence opener. The contest started on Tues- day, April 9. However, with the game tied 6-6 and heading to extra innings, the umpiring crew decided to call the game due to darkness — there was also a 45-minute rain delay. The two teams resumed play on Thursday, April 11. Sprague got an unearned run in the top of the eighth to take a 7-6 lead, but McNary responded with two runs in the bottom half of the frame on a single from Alex Tavera to walk-off with an 8-7 victory. “I was kind of nervous at fi rst,” Tavera said about his at- bat. “But I just had to take some deep breaths and help my team out as much as I could.” Sprague went on top 1-0 in the top of the second after taking advantage of an error by McNary third baseman Ren- nick Jeffries. But the Celtics were able to respond when they came to bat. Ty Covalt started out the in- ning by legging out an infi eld single. The senior catcher ad- vanced to third after a pair of groundouts, then came in to score on an RBI-single to left fi eld by Jamison Martin. The Olympians, however, regained the lead in the top of the third on another defensive miscue, which was a theme for both teams throughout the en- tire game — both teams com- bined for nine errors. After retiring the fi rst two batters of the inning, McNary pitcher David Allen surren- dered a bloop single to Michael KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary’s Ty Covalt scores the fi rst run of the game in the Celtics 7-6 come-from-behind win over Sprague. Soper. The senior right-hander tried to pick Soper off fi rst mo- ments later, but threw the ball away as Soper got into scoring position by advancing to sec- ond. The error proved to be cost- ly as Brock McMullen singled into left fi eld, scoring Soper. Allen redeemed himself at the plate in the bottom of the fourth with a bloop single to right fi eld that scored Covalt from second, tying the game 2-2. But in the top of the fi fth. Sprague appeared to have bro- ken the game open. The Olympians scored three runs on four hits in the inning as Allen was replaced by Robert Benson on the hill. But Benson retired both bat- ters he faced to stop the bleed- ing, which ended up being very key for the Celtics later in the game. “I thought Robert was huge,” McNary head coach Larry Keeker said. “He came into a tough spot and got us out of the inning. He did a good job of damage control because it could have been a lot worse.” Soper hit an RBI-double to the wall in right fi eld off Mc- Nary pitcher Devon Bedoya — who entered in for Benson on the mound in the top of the sixth — extending Sprague’s lead to 6-2. A sacrifi ce fl y from Martin in the bottom of the sixth cut Sprague’s lead to 6-3. McNary faced that same defi cit going into seventh, but the Celtics re- fused to say die — they also got some help thanks to a trio of defensive mistakes by Sprague. Sprague pitcher Cole Her- schbach threw six solid innings for the Olympians. He start- ed the top of the seventh, but was taken off the hill after Ian Martin reached on an error by Sprague third baseman Will Deloretto. Getting Herschbach off the hill was crucial to the McNary comeback Another error from Delo- retto, along with walks issued to Benson and Jacob Jackson, al- lowed Ian Martin to score and gave McNary a bases loaded sit- uation with nobody out. The McNary threat nearly died there as Covalt fl ew out to shallow right fi eld and Allen went down looking for the fi rst two outs of the inning, leaving it up to Jamison Martin to try and extend the game. “I was thinking that they were going to pitch me mid- dle-away in that situation, so I just wanted to make some contact and get the ball in-play because I knew it would be a tough play,” Jamison Martin said. With the game on the line, Martin hit a slow roller be- tween third base and shortstop. Deloretto hustled quickly to his left to cut the ball off and hurried his throw to fi rst. But the throw was in the dirt and the Sprague fi rst baseman couldn’t handle it as Deloretto committed his third error of the frame. Benson scored easily from third and Tavera, who was on second and running on the crack of the bat, never broke stride as he scored on a ball that never left the infi eld. Despite not having a hit in the inning, McNary had pushed three runs across and tied the game at 6-6. “We felt really good about being competitive at the plate down the stretch,” Keeker said. “We knew their bullpen guys were having some command issues and we wanted to force them to throw strikes. I knew that if we had a chance to cre- ate some traffi c, then we were going to have a chance.” “I was proud of the fact that we executed our offensive plan in the seventh.” Bedoya had a chance to end the game on the next at-bat, but struck out. It was 7:45 p.m. by the time the seventh inning had fi nished. The home plate umpire met Please see BASE, Page A11 Tracksters take away 18 event wins at dual meet KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary’s Noah Unwin gets by a Beaverton defender and advances the ball upfi eld in the Celtics 9-7 loss on Friday, April 12. McNary falls to Beaverton BY MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes The McNary boys lacrosse team got goals from fi ve differ- ent players, but it wasn’t enough as the Celtics fell to Beaverton 9-7 on Friday, April 12. McNary lost a pair of face- offs in the fi rst minute of the game, which led to two Bea- verton goals before the Celtics even got an offensive possession. After the Celtics missed three decent looks midway through the period, the Beavers came back with another score to on top 3-0. But McNary was fi nally able to respond late in the quarter. Tim Gross found teammate Jamison Proulx from behind the net and Proulx fi red a rocket that one-hopped into the back of the twine to put the Celtics on the board. Beaverton, however, in- creased their lead early in the second quarter with two straight goals, putting McNary’s defi cit at 5-1. Fortunately, for McNary, the Celtics were able to clean some things up on the defensive side to give themselves a chance at a comeback. “We starting putting our long pole on face-off draws to try and slow down their op- portunities,” McNary head coach Michael Hochspeier said. “That’s what helped us come back.” Midway through the second quarter, Cameron Parks got on the board by going coast-to- coast and reversing around the post for an impressive jump- goal. Then, with under 30 sec- onds remaining in the half, Jesse Proulx got loose up the left side and put a beautiful touch shot into the back of the net to cut Please see CELTS, Page A11 BY MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes McNary’s boys and girls track teams had great showings in their dual meet with Sprague on Wednesday, April 10 as both teams won nine events each. McLean Schmit was the one that stood out the most for the McNary boys as the senior won both the 110 and 300-meter hurdles and set personal-best times in each race. McLean fi n- ished the 110-hurdles in 16.66 seconds and the 300-hurdles in 44.36 seconds, helping the Celtic boys dominate the ma- jority of the running events. “(Schmit) has just put in a lot of really hard work and he’s such a good technical hurdler,” McNary head coach Frank Gauntz said. “He’s running re- ally well right now.” Schmit, however, wasn’t the only Celtic setting personal re- cords in this meet. Elio Carella hit a new personal-high in the 400m (53.70) as did freshman Ben- jamin Standley in the 1500m (4:42.59). McNary sprinter Ethan Martin continued his hot start to the season with his win in the 100-meter dash (11.75). Bryan Hernandez, who is in his fi rst season with the Celtics as a junior, fi lled in for Sebas- tian Shoemaker in the 200m and wound up winning the race with a time of 23.87. The Celtic boys also were victorious in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relay races. Sunny Hoang was the other individual winner for the Mc- Nary boys with his victory in the pole vault, jumping 9-feet-8 inches. For the McNary girls, soph- omore Audrey Williams set her KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings Emily Lettenmaier breaks away from the pack to win the 1500 meters in McNary’s dual meet with Sprague. new personal-record in the 800m (2:44.64) and freshman Emily Lettenmaier was just able to pull away down the stretch in the 1500m (6:02.84). Through four meets, Isabel- la Walker is looking to be the Celtics most versatile athlete. The sophomore ran away with the 300-hurdles (53.71) and also pulled out a win in the high jump (5-00). “Isabella is a really good ath- lete. If she could do every event, she probably would,” Gauntz said. “It’s nice to have that kind of fl exibility in an athlete. We’re still trying to fi gure out what’s even is going to give her the best chance to go to state.” Caitlyn Kiefi uk Yates won the other hurdles event for the Celtics, winning the 100 in 17.67 — her top mark of the season. The McNary girls swept all throwing events with victories by Kennedy Buss in the discus (89-0), Kylie Dean in the shot put (29-7.75) and Sabella Alfaro in the javelin (114-5). With this being her second season competing in track & fi eld, Alfaro’s steady improve- ment could land her in the state meet in late-May. “I feel like I have really been able to focus more on throwing this year than anything else,” Alfaro said. “I just need to stay motivated and keep learning and working hard.” McNary will compete again on Saturday up north in the Wilsonville Invitational along with 26 other teams.
