It's getting to be old hat for Umpqua Valley Christian, which repeated as 2A/1A champions on Saturday

Story by Mike Weber

Umpqua Valley Christian plated a run in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead and endured tense moments in the seventh to defeat Kennedy, 2-1, at the OSAA / OnPoint Community Credit Union Class 2A/1A baseball state championship game played Saturday afternoon at PK Park in Eugene.

Freshman pinch hitter Hunter Powell’s RBI single in the sixth was the difference in the game and made a winner of Monarch senior Ty Hellenthal, who went the distance, allowing four hits and four walks while fanning four.

Hellenthal yielded just one unearned run but was in peril in the top of the seventh with two on and two out. He proceeded to strike out Kennedy standout Gia Vaquera to end the game.

"It’s just a great feeling to hold the trophy and I don't want to let it go," said Hellenthal, who earned the Moda Health Player-of-the-Game award for Umpqua Valley Christian. "I've been wanting to do this since last year. I can't ask for anything more than going back-to-back. Our coaches prepared us well and this is the culmination of a great year. Me and my teammates all stepped up and we all had a big performance. Our defense was amazing and I saw some catches that were just incredible."

Junior Henry Beyer was the tough-luck loser for Kennedy, which was playing in its third state title game over the past four years. The right hander went six innings, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out seven.

UVC (27-5) opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single by sophomore Caleb York, which drove home Logan Anderson, who earlier singled.

Kennedy (26-4), seeded second, answered with a run in the top of the second, when sophomore Creo Walker, who led off the inning with a triple, scored on a wild pitch. There was no further scoring until the sixth, when Powell was summoned and came through.

"We were talking the whole game about how well he (Beyer) was pitching, so I felt like I had to just be aggressive," said Powell. "Yeah it was really a pressure situation, so I just took deep breaths and I tried to focus on what I needed to do. I just tried to have a good approach. It kind of felt like the first team to really make a move was going to win.”

"Winning back-to-back titles is amazing,” said UVC head coach Dave York. “It's incredibly hard to do and not many schools have done it and we're grateful to be one of the teams that has done it. This is a really young and inexperienced group, but they did everything I asked them to do. They're all really talented kids who all work really hard and they believe in each other."

 "We had to rely on our defense and we were resilient enough to pull out the win," added York. "Our pitching and defense have been kind of a staple for us all year and this game proved that."