Senior Caleb King drove home five runs, while junior starter Kam Kessler and sophomore reliever Eli DeMello combined to limit Tillamook to four hits Friday for an 8-2 victory in the Madras Spring Break Baseball Tournament.
“We bounced back tonight and put a tally on the right side of the win-loss column,” Taft Coach Matt Hilgers said. “We still need to clean up some things on the defensive side of the ball. We are not fundamentally sound yet.”
Senior infielder Josh Salsbery had three hits to pace the Tigers, while Kessler and DeMello collected two each as Taft took advantage of a four-run third inning against the Class 4A Cheesemakers (2-3, 0-0 Cowapa).
Junior Cody Knott and sophomore Caleb Jones joined Salsbery by driving in runs for Class 3A Taft (7-2, 0-0 West Valley), which rebounded from a nine-error, nine-walk 18-9 loss to 4A Crook County on Thursday. Kessler doubled, while Salsbery and King tripled for Taft.
“We were able to overcome walks and errors today with some key defensive plays,” Hilgers said. “We had a better mindset today, and we had a much different approach to the game than we have the last couple games.”
The Tigers will conclude tournament play against host Madras at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Taft 8, Tillamook 2
TAFT AB R H BI
Josh Salsbery 4 2 3 1
Eli DeMello 4 2 2 0
Caleb King 3 1 1 5
Jack Stempel 4 0 1 0
Cody Knott 3 0 0 1
Kam Kessler 4 1 2 0
Tyee Fisher 4 0 0 0
Caleb Jones 3 1 1 1
Trenton Fisher 1 1 0 0
TOTALS 30 8 10 8
TILLAMOOK AB R H BI
Chase Wagner 4 0 1 0
Justin Harmon 4 1 1 0
Tanner Richardson 0 0 0 0
Jeff Witthoft 4 0 1 0
Tyson Wilkes 3 1 0 0
Danny Weber 2 0 0 1
Max Brown 3 0 0 1
Corbin Brown 4 0 1 0
Josh Smith 3 0 0 0
TOTALS 27 2 4 2
TAFT 104 012 0 — 8
TILLAMOOK 100 010 0 — 2
LOB–TAFT 5, TILLAMOOK 12. ERR–Josh Salsbery (2),Kam Kessler, Eli DeMello, Cody Knott, Corbin Brown, Justin Harmon. 2B–Kam Kessler, Chase Wagner. 3B—Josh Salsbery, Caleb King. HBP–Trenton Fisher, Max Brown, Tanner
Richardson (3), Tyson Wilkes, Danny Weber (2). SACF—Caleb King. SB–Josh Salsbery, Eli DeMello (2), Caleb Jones, Corbin Brown (2), Tyson Wilkes, Chase Wagner, Danny Weber.
TAFT IP H R ER BB SO HR
Kam Kessler (W) 4.00 3 2 1 1 3 0
Eli DeMello 3.00 1 0 0 0 1 0
TILLAMOOK
Jeff Witthoft (L) 6.00 9 8 8 1 3 0
Tyson Wilkes 1.00 1 0 0 1 0 0
BB–Trenton Fisher, Cody Knott, Tanner Richardson.
