At the midway point of the summer league season, the St. Helens Saints are enjoying tremendous success in their American Legion single A (18U) baseball schedule as they've compiled a 9-2 record and have a four-game win streak.
The Saints recorded an impressive 11-10 win in a June 18 contest over the 17U single A Columbia Gorge Hustlers (1-6) at Quinton Street Ballpark in The Dalles. The Saints, guided by Coach Matt Lokken and assistant Coach Jackson Hald, followed with a 14-1 win June 19 over the JBD Athletics 16U squad at Mark Morris High School in Longview.
"It's been a good summer so far and it was awesome geting a win in The Dalles," said Hald. "It's always a good atmosphere whenever we play the Hustlers out here. Every time we get a chance to come out to the Gorge, we just try to enjoy it as much as we can and we definitely had lots of fun today."
In their win over the Hustlers, the Saints jumped out to a 7-2 first inning advantage. The Hustlers came back and knotted it 9-9 in the fourth inning. Tyler Mauldin, a 2024 St. Helens High Lions graduate, had a key role in helping lead the Saints to the victory. The relief pitcher, one of five St. Helens graduates on an experience Saints squad, helped hold the Hustlers to just one run over the final five innings.
"We have a good mix of players with some young kids and a few older guys too," said Hald. "We have some pretty good incoming St. Helens High freshmen who have been doing a nice job and the older guys (graduated seniors) have proved to be good team leaders too. I'm super proud of all these guys and I've coached most of them since they were little kids. Just seeing how they've grown up and become good baseball players had been a great experience for me."
The exciting and evenly played matchup remained tied 9-9 through seven innings. The Saints regained the lead in the eighth, highlighted by an RBI single by Darrin Zuschlag. St. Helens graduate Connor Weiss, who earlier hit a triple, scored on Zuschlag's clutch hit, lifting the Saints in front 10-9.
In the top of the ninth, the Saints extended their advantage to 11-9 when Javon Holder hit a sacrifice fly RBI, driving home Quinn Swift, who earlier reached base after hitting a leadoff single.
The Hustlers fought back and got a run in the bottom of the ninth, making it 11-10. The Hustler comeback effort continued too as they loaded the bases and had a baserunner on third representing the tying run with two outs. Mauldin just calmly displayed nerves of steel on the mound as he struck out the Hustlers final batter to help preserve the impressive road win. The Saints had a solid offensive performance with 12 hits and the Hustlers had 10 hits.
"Tyler really went right after those guys, he didn't waver and he never showed any sign of frustation at all and that's why we like to have older guys on our team," said Hald. "I definitely feel like we have have a good chance to make it to the American Legion playoffs, which would really be a good confidence boost for our team."
Nate Nowak, Carter Meisch, and Carson McKenzie are three other 2024 St. Helens High grads who play on an experienced summer league squad. Nowak, Meisch, and 2024 Lions graduate Braden Ellis played in the Class 4A Senior All-Star Baseball Series June 16-17 at North Marion High School in Aurora. The Saints play their next game June 27 at Bend, which is the beginning of a four-day wood bat tournament that concludes June 30.
The Saints have 10 games remaining on their regular season schedule, which concludes July 17. The Saints are focusing on qualifying for the American Legion state tournament July 19-24 in Redmond.
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