Wells baseball drops heartbreaker to South Medford in state tournament round one
Published 6:10 am Tuesday, May 27, 2025
No. 15 Ida B. Wells High School baseball is leaving their home field with a case of deja vu after falling 3-2 in round one of the Oregon 6A high school baseball state tournament.
Leading 2-0 over visiting No. 18 South Medford going into the final frame, the Guardians gave up three runs in the top of the seventh and couldn’t get one back to drop the postseason opener.
Last year, as the No. 15 seed, against McNary, the Guardians led 1-0 going into the seventh and gave up two runs to fall 2-1.
With sophomore Grae Wilson on the mound, South Medford started the seventh by getting hit by a pitch, followed by a walk that saw Wilson throw the first two balls and Ian Kolmer swapping in on the mound to throw the next two.
The Panthers had Brad Love at the plate showing bunt on the first few pitches. But on the fourth, he pulled back and slapped the ball down the right field line to score a run.
It was the Panthers’ first hit of the day.
The next batter hit a slow chop to Cam Hammer at shortstop who threw out the runner at first, but allowed the game-tying run to score.
However, the play didn’t end there as first baseman Cody Roletto threw over to third trying to get the runner out rounding the base. Instead, the ball got by and dribbled into shallow left, allowing the go-ahead run to score for the Panthers.
“Two runs is never enough, you always want to add more and we had opportunities with runners in scoring position where we didn’t come through,” Wells head coach Jeremy Shetler said. “They had one hit, great execution of a slap bunt to put them in position to do that. It’s tough, you’re trying to make an extra throw to get an out and you give up another run.
“Two years in a row to go into the seventh with a lead and then lose it, it’s unfortunate.”
Wells started off the game hot with sophomore Jack Burnham on the bump and getting the first three outs.
In the home half, senior Jackson Poole walked, which was followed by Ramsey Prentice reaching on a fielder’s choice followed by an error to put Poole on third. Prentice stole second to put runners on third and second with no outs.
A groundout later, Roletto was up and hit a deep sacrifice fly to center to score Poole and make it 1-0. Hammer followed with a single to center to score Ramsey and make it 2-0 off of South Medford starter Evan Rhoden.
Wilson came on to pitch in the second inning and did well, going 4.2 innings with no hits allowed and four strikeouts. He had three walks and hit three batters, but was well scattered that it never really mounted much of a threat for South Medford.
Meanwhile the offense went cold in the second and third time through the order, as seen by the Guardians picking up only more hit along with two walks and one HBP.
The bottom part of the order was up in the seventh, and the Guardians went down in order as the Panthers celebrated their upset victory.
Rhoden went the distance while giving up two runs on three hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
While the season ends for Wells at 17-11, the memories and legacy of the 2025 class is a strong one that continued the high expectations of the Guardians baseball program.
“They came in with 28 kids as a freshmen group,” Shetler said. “We finished with 14 seniors out of that 28. They’ve done a ton and five of them have the opportunity to continue on and go play at the next level. Their baseball story isn’t done.”
Those 14 seniors include Hammer, Poole, Roletto, Kolmer, Parker Hartmeyer, Flynn Mitchell, Elliot Benjamin, Diggy Griffin, Teague Zimmer, Porter Sutherland, Everett Lubberstedt, Dylan McCarthy, Jake Manning and Jack Searcy.
Those 14 have had a heavy influence on some of the youngsters that played well for the Guardians, including their main two pitchers in Burnham and Wilson.
Not only that, but freshman Micah Burrell had a strong season at the plate, as did sophomore Ramsey Prentice to give Wells plenty to look forward to.
“The cupboard is full of pitching, the 14 PIL games were all started by sophomores,” Shetler said. “Instead of graduating pitching we’re graduating the plate appearances. … Hopefully these younger guys take advantage of being around and seeing how hard the older guys worked and how they really changed their bodies.”
South Medford will take on No. 2 West Linn in the second round on Wednesday, May 28.
