KEIZER – It took extra innings for the West Linn offense to get going Saturday afternoon at the OSAA / OnPoint Community Credit Union 6A Baseball State Championship at Roto-Rooter Park in Keizer.
But once West Linn got the engines started, the Lions (23-9) proved impossible to stop. The 6A power scored five runs on two walks and four hits in the top of the eighth inning, then held on to defeat top-seeded Clackamas, 6-2, securing their fourth state title over the past five seasons.
“I can’t believe we did this!” exclaimed winning pitcher Jack Frishman, a junior.
“This team wasn’t about just one guy,” said veteran head coach Joe Monahan. “It was about everybody.”
“They’re a helluva team and program,” said Clackamas coach JJ Winkle. “Joe does a great job. You have to tip your caps to them. Someone once told me, ‘You have to go get it; They’re not going to give it to you.’ And they sure didn’t.”
The win capped a challenging season for West Linn. Pitching coach Tim Driscoll lost his wife, Melissa, unexpectedly on the first day of practice in the spring. Then, towards the end of the season, Monahan’s father, Michael, passed away at age 81. His memorial service is Wednesday.
“He was a huge fan,” Monahan said. “I miss him dearly. I used to talk to him after games like this. I’m glad we won it for him. This is special.”
As special it is for West Linn to be atop 6A once again after a one-year hiatus, a win today also would have been special for Clackamas and its 12 seniors.
“The seniors have been the backbone for the past four years,” Winkle said. “They got us here. We’re going to miss them for sure.”
Clackamas (28-4), playing for its first title since defeating West Linn, 5-1, in 2017, had a chance to walk off with the title in the bottom of the seventh. A CJ Limbo single and two walks loaded the bases with two outs for the Cavaliers and brought up senior catcher Nolan Foglio, the team’s top hitter. Foglio barreled a ball to left-center but it hung up long enough in the breeze for Sloan Baker to make the catch and send the game to extra innings.
“We had 3-4 opportunities to score with our best guys up,” Winkle observed. “We just couldn’t get it done.”
On a blustery day marked by intermittent rain, and a rain delay in the fifth inning, West Linn struck first in the top of the second inning. Sophomore outfielder Tyler Holmes took the first pitch he saw, a breaking ball from Clackamas senior lefty Ben Foglio, and deposited it well over the home-run porch in left, a prodigious blast that traveled in excess of 400 feet.
“I saw the pitch perfectly and took a big swing on it,” Holmes said. “It felt so good. I thought it gave us momentum for sure.”
Until that time, both Foglio and West Linn righthander Jack Frishman had been unscathed, each working around first-inning singles by using breaking pitches to get key strikeouts.
The score remained 1-0 Lions until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Clackamas shortstop Luke Brady hustled out an infield single to short to plate pinch-runner Dylan Brower. Brower had come on for Ben Foglio, who’d singled through the hole between third and short.
When Ben Foglio took the mound after Clackamas got the equalizer, a light rain did not faze the lefthander. He set down West Linn 1-2-3 for the second straight inning.
After rain halted play for 16 minutes, Frishman returned to the mound for West Linn in the bottom of the fifth and continued to keep Clackamas hitters off balance.
“My slider was the best it’s been all year, said Frishman, who improved to 12-0 with the win. “My plan was to throw strikes and let my defense do the job behind me.”
“Frishman, in my opinion, is the Pitcher of the Year in the state,” Monahan said. “He’s a dude who throws three pitches and hits his spots.”
Both teams had chances to break the 1-1 tie late in regulation, but neither could muster the key hit. West Linn chased Ben Foglio, who had struck out 11 in 6.2 innings, with two on in the top of the seventh. Reliever Cade King went full to his first matter before inducing weak contact to end the inning.
Frishman, who threw just four pitches in the sixth to set Clackamas down 1-2-3, survived the bases loaded jam in the seventh. He yielded just six hits and three walks in his seven innings of work, while striking out six.
West Linn’s winning rally started with one out in the top of the eighth. Hank Curdy, who was 2-for-2 with a walk to that point, battled hard from down 1-2 to work a six-pitch walk. Caden Klouda, who’d struck out in his three previous plate appearances, then banged a 2-1 pitch off the wall in right center for a double, which scored Curdy with the go-ahead run.
“I’d been struggling at the plate all day up to that point,” Klouda said. “I had been seeing the ball well all day and knew it was just a matter of time. I got my foot down on time and turned on something. It was an amazing feeling seeing all the fans going crazy.”
With two outs, Monahan, hoping for insurance, summoned junior Niko Hollabaugh to pinch hit. The move paid off, as Hollabaugh lined a 1-2 pitch into center for an RBI single.
“He’s a gamer,” Monahan said. “He has a good swing. I was looking for an opportunity to use his bat in a key situation.”
Cohen Bissell followed with an RBI knock of his own before Carson Doblie capped the rally with a two-out double to the gap in left-center.
A five-run deficit stared Clackamas in the face when the team came up needing to do or die in the bottom of the eighth against Klouda, who was on in relief of Frishman. Clackamas showed great fortitude, getting two hits and benefiting from an error to load the bases with no outs. That summoned Monahan from the dugout for a mound visit.
“He told us to settle down and that those runs don’t matter,” Klouda recalled. “He said, ‘Pitch to contact and get weak ground balls.’”
That’s precisely what happened. Luke Brady’s fielder’s choice ground out to first plated one run, but it also produced an out, which was more important. That brought up Limbo with runners at the corners. The senior hit a 2-1 pitch hard up the middle that looked like it would sneak through, but SS Ryan Hemsley snagged the ball at the bag, stepped on second and threw on to first to complete the game-ending – and championship-winning – double play!
“Ryan made an amazing play to end it,” Klouda said. “It played out in slow motion right in front of my eyes and the next thing I knew he was running towards me [to celebrate].”
Winkle said he told his Clackamas crew afterwards to keep their heads up. The Cavaliers won 28 games, lost just four, and played like the No. 1 seed in the postseason.
“I thought Frishman was really good,” he said. “I thought our kid was really good. They just got the big hits when they needed them.”
johnt@osaa.org
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