PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 24, 2020
KEIZERTIMES.COM
MYB squad victorious in summer opener
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The summer of 2020 has
been unusual to say the least
due to COVID-19.
But on a perfect July eve-
ning at Keizer Little League
Park, a small sense of normal-
cy was restored.
Baseball was back.
In their fi rst game of the
year, the McNary Youth
Baseball (MYB) senior na-
tional team defeated Oregon
City 12-6 on Thursday, July
16. However, the end result
wasn’t the highlight of the
night for this Celtics squad, it
was the ability to, once again,
play the sport they love.
“We got to be out playing
baseball again. That was the
biggest thing. It didn’t mat-
ter to our kids who we were
facing, they were just excited
to play again,” said Rob Tav-
ares, the head coach for the
MYB senior national team.
“I feel like this whole process
has really changed all of our
perspectives on being appre-
ciative of what we have.”
McNary starting pitcher
Andrew Hammond looked to
be in midseason form in his
fi rst outing, retiring the side
with two strikeouts in the top
of the fi rst.
In the bottom half of the
frame, Drew Zeller reached
base with a bloop single to
right fi eld. After Zeller stole
second, Logan Hendrick-
son knocked him in with an
RBI-double left center fi eld.
Jack Tavares soon followed
with an RBI-single to left
fi eld.
The Celtics wound up
getting two more across the
plate in the inning thanks to
a hit-batsman and fi elder’s
choice — both coming with
the bases loaded — increasing
the lead to 4-0.
“I think we were a little
rusty in the beginning, but
I felt like our kids got their
groove back pretty quickly,”
Tavares said. “We have a great
group of guys that are always
willing to learn.”
Hammond retired the next
two hitters he faced in the top
of the second before getting
replaced by Riley Castillo,
who forced the next hitter to
groundout.
McNary continued their
hot hitting in the bottom of
the second. After Hammond
and Daniel Cooper drew
two-out walks, Castillo lined
an RBI-single into left fi eld
to make the score 5-0.
Zeller then cleared the
bases by scalding a ball to the
base of the fence in left center
for a two-run triple, extend-
ing the Celtics advantage to
7-0.
“As a program, we put
more of an emphasis on hit-
ting, which has really worked
out in our favor,” Tavares said.
“It was good to see a lot of
our kids fi nd some gaps.”
A pair of free passes and an
error allowed Oregon City
to score their fi rst run of the
game in the top of the third.
But even though the Pio-
neers were threatening to do
further damage with runners
on second and third, Hen-
drickson made an impressive
backhanded stop on a hot
shot down the fi rst base line
and touched the bag to end
the inning.
McNary responded with
a pair of runs in the bottom
half to make the score 9-1.
With a comfortable lead,
Tavares wanted to give some
different kids chances on the
mound and in new positions.
“We had guys that were
brand new to playing on the
big fi eld,” Tavares said. “We
wanted to experiment with
kids on the mound and in
different positions. It was fun,
though. It had more of a fall
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
After knocking in the fi rst run of the game, Logan Hendrickson crossed the plate moments later
in the Celtics 12-6 victory over Oregon City on Thursday, July 16.
ball feel to it.”
Oregon City got a cou-
ple runs back in the top of
the fourth, but McNary re-
sponded with three runs of
their own to go up 12-3. The
Pioneers then pushed three
runs across in the top of the
fi fth to make the score more
respectable.
Because of the coronavi-
rus, coaches had players take
health and safety precautions
all throughout the contest.
The MYB program bought
temporal scanners to test
kids for a fever before they
entered the dugout. Masks
were required to be worn by
coaches and kids when they
weren’t on the fi eld and fans
were asked to practice social
distancing.
Handshakes and high-fi ves
were also prohibited.
“We wanted to be safe and
enjoy playing baseball and in
order to do that, we had to
take precautions,” Tavares said.
Riley Castillo hits a sharp ground ball back up the middle.
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KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
Celtics pitcher Andrew Hammond retired all fi ve hitters he
faced on the mound.