The Wilsonville baseball team has come a long way since their first game of the season, Wilsonville kicked off against a good West Albany team that ended up in the state championship. Wilsonville and West Albany’s marathon of a game finally ended in the 13th inning with the Bulldogs winning 2-1.

Though the pitching and defense looked very good for Wilsonville the offense was far inferior with 21 of the 39 outs coming via the strikeout. Wilsonville continued to struggle out of the gate losing 5 of their first 6 contests including the drawn-out loss against West Albany. In those five losses, the Wilsonville offense was only able to muster a measly 7 runs.

After that a switch flipped, Wilsonville went on a tear starting on April 6th against Bend the Wildcats won 9 in a row. A loss to La Salle ended that losing streak on April 26th before Wilsonville started another one and this time wouldn’t end until the playoffs. After that La Salle loss Wilsonville got the best of 11 straight opponents and not losing until May 30th.

Wilsonville won the NWOC in dramatic fashion walking off Rex Putnam to take home their second straight league title, then took down North Eugene and Mountain View in the first and second rounds respectively. However, the run ended against Thurston in the semifinals, The Wilsonville defense and pitching that had been so good for the past couple of months struggled against a very good Thurston team that would go on to win the state title.

Justin Schramm commented after the game about losing in the semis for the second year straight “It’s a tough loss but we will bounce back next year and use this as motivation in the offseason”

For Wilsonville, it was a deflating 8-14 defeat that saw them have an 8-4 lead before Thurston scored 10 unanswered runs with the help of some Wilsonville errors. This game would end in Wilsonville being defeated in the semifinals for the second year in a row to the state champions.

Overall it was a very successful season for Wilsonville, it is seen as a failure by many in the program, as a state championship is always their goal, but what is often overlooked is how much a team improves and how far this team has come.

Schramm then said this about the improvements he saw up and down the roster from the start of the season compared to the finish “We made a lot of improvements it was fun to watch so many guys step up and play a big role in getting us to the semis”

With Wilsonville only graduating two Seniors (Jacob Ogden and Will Hemsley) almost all of the roster stays intact for next year, the whole rotation will return (Schramm, Luke Haener, and Wade Hagey) the infield returns everyone (Owen Eggert, Kheller Larson, Berkley Reents, Cooper Adams, and Mark Wiepert)  and the outfield has some very good pieces that played well throughout this year that will look to step up next year (Luke Larson, Maverick Summers, Drew Hall).

Haener had an optimistic outlook for next year “Obviously the goal for next year would be to get a ring, we are going to be in the weight room and get stronger and faster.”

The Wildcats have a very good outlook going into next season, with more big game experience on the roster, almost the whole team returning, and a very good Senior class leading the way the only ones stopping Wilsonville baseball from getting the coveted ring will be themselves