After two long road trips and two stunning rallies, South Medford will take on McMinnville in the 6A quarterfinals tomorrow

Second-seeded West Linn’s historic, unprecedented run is over.

After winning three successive large-class state titles between 2022 and 2024 – something that had never before been accomplished in state history – the Lions (23-6) fell at home on Thursday to 18th-seeded South Medford (17-11), 4-1, in the second round of the 6A playoffs in the OSAA / OnPoint Community Credit Union State Baseball Championships.

The game had been delayed a day to accommodate South Medford’s high school graduation ceremony on Wednesday. Seven Panther seniors have now created everlasting memories on back-to-back days.

South Medford needed a second straight playoff rally, and two six-hour drives north in four days, to advance to tomorrow’s quarterfinal versus McMinnville. On Monday, the Panthers trailed Portland’s Ida B. Wells, 2-0, before pushing over three runs in the top of the seventh to win, 3-2.

Thursday, at West Linn, the host Lions took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, on a double, productive ground ball out and sacrifice fly.

“We could easily have folded,” said South Medford head coach Josh Moody. “But they have bought into the ‘next pitch’ mentality. On the way back to the dugout, my guys said we had to score to win anyways. They stayed focused and we ended up on the right side of things today.”

South Medford’s four-run seventh started with an infield single from senior 1B Evan Rhoden. One out later, senior Grady McQuillan hit a ball that got through the 6-hole to put runners on first and second. The next Panther batter hit a tailor-made double play grounder, but West Linn could not even get one out. A walk to Brad Love ensued, scoring the game-tying run. A Jake Lewis sacrifice fly put South Medford on top. The third and fourth runs scored on a throwing error and single from Easton Douglas, respectively.

Four unearned runs sent West Linn to the bottom of the seventh now fighting for its playoff life.

Tristan Mallari and Lewis made sure not to give the Lions any hope.

Mallari got the first two outs of the frame – he pitched 6.2 inning of two-hit ball before running up against the pitch limit – and Lewis notched the team’s seventh strike out of the game to end it.

What might have been a 1-0 West Linn escape instead was a 4-1 South Medford upset that had the Panthers scrambling to make accommodations in the area in advance of tomorrow’s trip to McMinnville.

“I was really proud of this team,” said West Linn head coach Joe Monahan, who took over the Lion program in 2014. “They were really young and inexperienced overall and we played the toughest schedule. If you told me we’d be 22-5 at the end of the regular season, I’d say, ‘You’re crazy.’

“This team overachieved in a lot of ways, but we struggled in the infield all season. We escaped a lot of those catastrophes along the way and, in the end it bit us. It’s a great young team with a bright future.”

Asked to reflect on the end of West Linn’s unprecedented streak, Monahan was philosophical.

“Every season is a new season that stands on its own,” he explained. “The goal always is to compete for league and state titles. Anything short of that keeps us hungry. We won three state titles and remained hungry. That was most impressive about the group we had.”