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Kleinschmit masterpiece: Kennedy pitcher fires no-hitter

Dylan Kleinschmit. James Day

James DayKennedy High sophomore Dylan Kleinschmit uncorked a pitching performance for the ages Tuesday afternoon in Mount Angel.

The Trojans righthander outdueled Santiam’s Wyatt Lyon, finished with a no-hitter and struck out a phenomenal 17 batters to lift Kennedy to a 1-0 Special District win against the Wolverines.

The win lifted the No. 2 Trojans to 7-0 in league play and 14-2 overall. The sixth-ranked Wolverines are 5-2 in league and 10-4 overall. The two teams continued their three-game series Wednesday and Friday after Our Town’s presstime.

“That’s as good a pitching performance as we have had in school history,” Kennedy coach Kevin Moffatt told Our Town.

“Coming in I knew it was going to be a close game,” said Kleinschmit. “I wasn’t expecting a lot of runs.”

Kleinschmit also complimented the work of his catcher, Josh Valladares and said “the defense played great,” although he noted that only four balls wound up in play because of the 17 strikeouts.

Kleinschmit needed just 94 pitches to hurl his gem on a partly cloudy day with a slight breeze. The game was completed in an economical 92 minutes.

Kleinschmit took a perfect game into the top of the sixth before walking No. 9 hitter Connor Forste on a 3-2 pitch with two out. Forste then stole second base with leadoff hitter Jesse Sendlinger at the plate. Moffatt chose to intentionally walk Sendlinger, setting up a force at all three bases. The ploy worked as Kleinschmit retired Colin Thurston on a ground ball to Trojans second baseman Angel De La Rosa.

Kennedy struck for its lone run against hard-luck losing pitcher Lyon in the bottom of the inning. Lyon, a senior righthander, finished with eight strikeouts and did not allow a hit until Cole Boen’s one-out bouncer past third base in the fifth.

Bruce Beyer started the winning rally with a bloop single to right. He stole second and scored on Brady Traeger’s double to left center, just beating the outfield relay.

Kleinschmit, pitching with his only lead of the game, then struck out Santiam’s 3, 4 and 5 hitters to finish off the masterpiece.

A Dustin Keys slow roller down the third base line in the top of the fifth was the biggest threat to Kleinschmit’s no-hitter. Trojans third baseman Demetre Marseille got a great jump on the ball and his throw on the run just beat Keys in a bang-bang play.

Silverton, meanwhile, improved to 13-2 overall and 6-1 in the Mid-Willamette Conference with a 4-3 win on April 22 vs. Central. The Foxes are ranked No. 4 in Class 5A, with league rivals Crescent Valley and West Albany No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.

West Albany dealt Silverton its only league loss, a 13-3 defeat on April 19, although the Foxes took a 7-2 win to split the series.

Silverton has a big series coming up with top-ranked Crescent Valley. The Foxes visit CV on May 6 and host the Raiders on May 8.

“The team has been playing extremely well and I hope we continue to do well,” first-year head coach Jeremiah Runion told Our Town.

Foxes senior infielder Caleb Ward, meanwhile, has signed to play next season at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario. Ward made it official at a signing event April 17 at the high school, noting that he selected Treasure Valley because he “liked the atmosphere, how hard everyone worked and how much fun baseball was for everyone.”

Speech and debate: The Silverton High speech and debate squad came through with a third-place finish in Class 5A at the OSAA championships April 18-20 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.

The Foxes scored 20 points, trailing only Ashland (52) and West Albany (22).

“We are very happy with the team performance – it has been a long year of hard work,” said Katie Kantrowitz, who shares coaching duties with Stephen McClanahan. “It’s definitely a team effort, despite the fact that they compete individually; we stress the importance of supporting each other in many ways, including giving each other regular feedback and helping each other to improve.”

Leading the way were Brady Tavernier and Chloe Platt. As a team they finished second in duo interpretation. Individual Tavernier was 6th in humorous interpretation and Platt made the semifinals in After Dinner Speech.

Their performances at state earned Tavernier and Platt a trip to nationals in Dallas, Texas, in June.

“Brady Tavernier and Chloe Platt have been working hard this year,” Kantrowitz said. “They came to us last spring and said they wanted to make it to nationals; they did that, AND they had a great state tournament. Really driven, hard-working kids, both of them. It’s been incredible to see them set their ‘eyes on the prize’ and really go for what they wanted.”

Tavernier and Platt are fundraising to pay for the Texas trip. Here is a link for those wanting to assist: https://silverton-high-or.ed.co/speech-and-debate.

Also participating for Silverton at state were Zahra DeShaw (6th in oratory, prelims in poetry reading), Mya Kuzmin (congress), Catie McCarty (oratory), Dylan Pool (Lincoln Douglas), Jordan Nobles (poetry reading) and Lily DeSantis (dramatic interpretation).

Softball: Defending Class 2A-1A champion Kennedy got off to an 0-3 start, but the Trojans have caught fire, winning 7 in a row, including a 5-0 start in Special District 2. Kennedy has been an offensive machine, outscoring league foes 79-14 on the way to the No. 6 ranking by the OSAA.

Kennedy leads Santiam and Gervais, both, 4-1, by one game, and the Trojans already have defeated both teams. Kennedy hosts Santiam on May 8 and visits Gervais on May 13.

Follow me on Twitter.com @jameshday.

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