Outlaws batters outhit Cascade

The Outlaws baseball team defeated Cascade 12-8 at home on Thursday, April 7, to notch their first league win of the season.

Tyler Trask led the offensive attack with three hits and two RBI. Andy Burke had two hits, including a double, and drove in two runs. Jeff Sampson recorded two hits and two RBI and Nate Jackson was good for a double.

Sisters scored five of their 12 runs in the fifth inning.

Coach Kevin Bigby said, “The runs came from a combination of our ability to hit and their (Cascade’s) errors.”

The Outlaws had five hits in the fifth and the Cougars committed five errors.

At the end of the inning Sisters held a 9-2 lead.

Cascade came right back in the sixth to score six runs of their own and narrowed the Outlaw lead to one at 9-8.

Andy Burke belted out a double in the bottom of the sixth and by the end of the inning the Outlaws had scored three more runs and stretched their advantage to 12-8.

Sisters finished with 10 hits for the game. Cascade had 11 hits and nine errors.

Pitcher Cody Ramsey got the win for the Outlaws with relief help from Nic Morton and Jeff Fitter in the sixth and seventh innings.

Bigby said, “The kids’ determination was pivotal in our ability to achieve victory today. We didn’t play with a fear of failure and we were able to overcome adversity throughout the game.”

“It would have been easy to become tentative after they scored those runs in the sixth,” added Bigby, “but we came right back and were determined and scored three runs ourselves.”

Bigby praised the excellent defensive play of Burke in right field.

“Andy had some real key plays for us today,” said Bigby. “Right field in our ballpark is a difficult position because of the way the wind blows, coupled with the spin the right-handed hitters put on the ball when hit hard. Andy made a particularly great catch when he started to go to his right, turned completely around, found the ball and was able to catch it.

“It was just a great play!”

Bigby also praised Trask for his outstanding offensive performance.

“Tyler came up big for us today,” said Kevin. “He’s really applied himself inpractice and it’s nice to see him reap the benefits of that.”

Two days earlier Andy Burke’s second inning solo home run was the highlight in the Outlaws, 4-2 loss to North Marion.

In the fourth inning Sisters’ Jeff Fitter led off with a single, stole second and was hit in off a base hit to right center by Austin Stark.

The Outlaws were unable to score the remainder of the game and the Huskies walked away with the victory.

North Marion’s pitcher, Boomer Miller pitched a great game for the Huskies, including 11 strikeouts.

“We struggled with his sharp downward breaking ball,” said Coach Kevin Bigby.

Fitter pitched the entire game for the Outlaws and recorded seven strikeouts for the outing.