As is should be, seniors carried the Madras White Buffalos to victory in their final game of the season Friday, a 9-6 victory over Gladstone on senior night.
The Buffs, who endured a tough 4-11 Tri-Valley Conference season, rode the two seniors on the team, Tyler Clarkson and Noah Vibbert, to victory over the third-place Gladiators.
Clarkson was 3-for-4 on the night, with a huge two-run triple and a pair of singles and two RBI and a run scored. Vibbert was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and played well in center field.
Clarkson also came in to pitch the seventh inning in relief of Bentley Stockton, who pitched well through six innings, giving up 10 hits but overcoming four Madras errors behind him. He left with the Buffs up 9-6. Stockton, a sophomore, got three of the Buffs’ four pitching victories in league play. Another sophomore, Jared Penaloza, got the other victory.
Clarkson came in from left field to pitch the seventh and appeared determined to cap his prep career throwing hard. He got three strikeouts facing four hitters with one batter reaching on an error. The last punchout uncorked a celebration among the MHS squad and coaches in the infield.
Gladstone, who will head into the state playoffs as the league’s No. 3 entrant behind The Dalles and Crook County, scored two runs in the second to take the lead.
The Buffs, though, responded. No. 9 hitter Pablo Solis – who was 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored – had a two-run single to tie it. Then Vibbert singled followed by Clarkson smashing a fly past the right fielder, scoring Solis and Vibbert.
Gladstone took advantage of sloppy Madras defense in the third to score two more and tie it. Madras would retake the lead in the fourth with another two runs to go up 6-4, but the Gladiators scratched out a run in the fifth then got the tying run in the sixth, helped by an error.
But the Buffs didn’t let this one get away. A clutch double from Rivera and a single by Dasen Rodriguez keyed a three-run Buffalo sixth, setting the stage for Clarkson to shut down the Glads for the save.
“I honestly cannot say enough good things about Tyler and Noah,” said Shaw. To see them grow into such great young men from their freshman year to now has been my biggest joy.”
Vibbert finished the year batting .413 with a slugging percentage of .587, Shaw noted, and Clarkson shifted from infield to outfield this year and was an anchor of the pitching staff.
Shaw lamented that the season was a bit cursed.
“We just seemed to have an inning or two that would let the games get away from us. We had way too many errors this year, so our focus this summer will be to work on cleaning that up as well as getting better at putting the ball in play and hitting it hard.”
More than any other team in the league, the Buffs depended on underclassmen this spring, including a contingent of sophomores and a freshman, in key roles.
Final Tri-Valley Conference Baseball Standings
(League record, overall record, OSAA ranking)
The Dalles 13-2, 19-7, 7
Crook County 13-2, 19-5, 8
Gladstone 8-7, 12-14, 15
Molalla 5-10, 10-14, 22
Madras 4-11, 11-14, 20
Estacada 2-13, 8-17, 25
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