Outlaws baseball closes out stellar season

The Sisters Outlaws baseball team's playoff run ended with a playoff loss to No. 1-seeded Cascade Christian on Friday, May 26. Despite the loss, the Outlaws can look back on many accomplishments across the season.

"This was an incredible season for us," said Coach Matt Hilgers. "We won our league title for the first time since 2017. We hosted and won the very first playoff game that our field has seen since they built the new field at the high school. Previously they used the field over near the middle school. We were one of seven teams at the 3A level to reach 20 wins on the season. We were able to turn our program around from where we have previously been."

That first playoff game, on Wednesday, May 23, against Neah-Kah-Nie was a barn burner.

"It was one of the more exciting games I have been a part of," Hilgers told The Nugget.

The Outlaws jumped out to an early lead. In the bottom of the first inning Austin Dean led the game off with a single and stole second base. Two batters later, Brody Fischer singled him home.

"We added another run in the second inning when Austin Dean singled in Landen Scott," Hilgers recalled. "In the third inning, we added our third run on an RBI single by Landen Scott scoring Brody Duey."

The Outlaws settled back a bit in the middle innings, and Neah-Kah-Nie made them pay, battling back.

The Outlaws had a 3-2 lead heading into the final inning. Neah-Kah-Nie scored the game-tying run, setting up a pressurized bottom half of the seventh inning. With two outs Patrick Silva hit a double that one-hopped the fence.

"The next pitch went through the catcher's legs and he couldn't find the baseball. As Pat rounded third we sent him home for the game-winning walk-off run," Hilgers recalled.

The Outlaws celebrated their dramatic victory, then turned toward Medford to face a tough new opponent.

"We knew heading into the game it was going to be a tough game," Hilgers said, "but we also knew we had a chance against them.

"We started the game off in the first inning with a Diego Silva walk and a Brody Fischer single. Brody Duey hit a hard line drive to left and the left fielder made a questionable diving catch that he was ruled out on."

Cascade Christian scored a run in the bottom half of the inning.

"We came out in the second and again had two base runners on but failed to get any runs on the board," Hilgers said. "This scenario became a theme for us on Friday. It was not one of our better games as we had six errors that led to free bases as well as six walks. We knew we had to play a clean game to give ourselves a chance, and we were not able to make that happen. It was a frustrating game both for our players and coaches, as we just didn't play the way we had been playing throughout the season. 

The Outlaws have multiple athletes recognized with All-League honors:

• Brody Duey - Pitcher

• Patrick Silva - Utility

• Brody Fischer - First Base

• Austin Dean -Catcher

• Diego Silva - Outfield

• Justin deSmet - Infield 

"I would also like to personally thank our assistant coaches, Hayden Hudson, Steve Hodges, and David deSmet. They were instrumental in our success this season," Hilgers noted. "We also had multiple parents that helped out with various things like a team barbecue between games as well as coming out to throw batting practice, etc. Lastly, I wanted to thank the community for showing up and supporting our team. We had more people at our home playoff game than I have seen since I was in high school, probably. It was great to see so many people show up to support us. It was also very special to have Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District, (and) Black Butte Fire District give us an escort out of town for our game on Friday."