Outlaws sweep La Pine, face Elmira

Outlaws varsity baseball, winners of seven straight, now look to keep their bats alive versus Elmira.

Sisters sent La Pine home empty handed last week. The series began April 16 in La Pine, where the Outlaws defeated the Hawks 6-4. Shifting to Sisters, the Outlaws won back-to-back games 7-5 and 11-1 on Friday, capping off a three-game set of Ws against their regional rival.

"The biggest thing, I think, from Friday, was we scored every single inning. It makes it tough on a team when you're scoring every inning in the second game," said head coach Matt Hilgers. "We knew going into the second game, if we could put up some runs early, we were going to put ourselves in a really good situation. We put up three runs in the first inning and just kept it going. Scoring every single inning for 12 innings was really big for us."

Junior Diego Silva bunted home the tying run in the first of the two Friday games, then came around to score the go-ahead run. Minutes later, on defense, he took over the mound.

"He came in with bases loaded and won out to close that first game, which was huge for us and shut them down, momentum-wise," Hilgers said.

Pitcher Brody Fischer, a senior, earned the win: four earned runs over seven innings with nine strikeouts and two walks.

The No. 9 hitter, Hudson Beckwith, a junior, had three hits in three at-bats in Game 1 on Friday.

In Game 2, sophomore Trent Gordon allowed five hits and one run over five innings, striking out seven and walking two.

Junior Kayl Mock went 3-for-6 on Friday with four RBIs, including two doubles and a home run.

"Our hitting and our approach was way, way better this past week. And then pitching - pitching has helped us all year. I think we've had eight or nine games this year that have been four runs or less. Pitching has kept us in a lot of games," Hilgers added.

Later this week, the Outlaws travel to Elmira on Friday for a doubleheader.

"We're just hoping to continue what we got started here and keep it rolling," Hilgers said. "We've got to be ready to go with them. With baseball, if you're off your game, anybody can get you."