KEIZER, ORE. – The last time the Glide baseball team was in the state championship game, the sixth inning was its undoing. Unfortunately, the sixth was once again trouble for the Wildcats in Friday’s 3A baseball state title game.

Back in 2015, Glide’s Tylan Dubois was throwing a no-hitter through five innings, but the lefty gave up a three-run blast in the sixth that proved to be the only runs of the game, giving Santiam Christian a 3-0 victory for the title.

In Friday’s title game, Glide starter Trevor Mehlhoff started the sixth inning with a 3-2 advantage over St. Mary’s, but the Crusaders scored three times to take a late 5-3 lead that held until the final out.

St. Mary’s recorded five singles in the sixth inning off of Mehlhoff. Two of the Crusaders’ three runs came with two outs, including the go-ahead run which came in on Nathaniel Savage’s second hit of the game. Savage finished 2-for-3 on the day and was named the Moda Health Player of the Game.

Glide managed to get one runner on base in the seventh, thanks to a hit by pitch from reliever Joe Johnson, but the Wildcats couldn’t do any damage.

The Wildcats held the lead twice in the contest. Glide jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a throwing error and a bases loaded hit by pitch. St. Mary’s tied the game in the third, but Glide retook the lead in the top of the sixth on a Cordell Moyers single to right field.

St. Mary’s won its second state championship in baseball. The Wildcats finished runner-up for a second time in three seasons.

Glide…………… 200 001 0 – 3 6 4
St. Mary’s………. 002 003 X – 5 8 2
Win – T. Danielson. Loss – T. Mehlhoff. Save – Joe Johnson.
E – Zach Holland; K. Leischner; T. Mehlhoff; Dillon Roark; C. Pruhliere; Ben Robinson. LOB – GLIDE 7; STMARYS 5. HBP – Rylan Black; Dillon Roark. SB – T. Mehlhoff; R. Parazoo; J. Covington.