Steers pick up big win on Senior Night

In a special home game honoring the three seniors on the roster, the Graham Steers took care of business with a big non-district win over the Vernon Lions 11-4.

A team always wants to win on Senior Night to give the departing players a positive memory and the Steers made sure that happened Friday, March 22. Luke McCain, Tate Loesch and Devon Castro all saw time in this game and made their contributions known.

Loesch and Castro each had big hits to score multiple runs late in the game to extend the team’s lead and McCain earned a walk which later turned into a run, while also making plays in multiple outfield positions.

Graham got down twice in this game as Vernon took a 1-0 lead early on and then a 3-1 lead a couple innings later. The Steers fought back each time to retake the lead and then exploded in the sixth inning for six runs to eventually earn the dominant win.

“In that sixth inning…Tate hit one to right center (field) to clear the bases and Devon comes in and hits a double down the right field line to score another senior,” head coach Allen McGee said. “It’s fitting that on Senior Night that those guys, the seniors, got rewarded for working hard.”

Starting pitcher Bruin Wright ran into trouble with the first couple of Vernon batters as the leadoff man hit a deep triple followed by the next batter hitting a single to score him and take a 1-0 lead. The next batter hit a double but Graham’s defense helped prevent any more runs from scoring.

The Steers scored their first run without recording a hit as Ty Thompson got hit by a pitch, stole second base and then came around to score on a Colter Johnson pop-up that fell for an error.

A couple innings later, Thompson took the mound but had difficulty getting outs early on. The Lions tacked on two more runs with three straight hits to lead off the inning and a fielder’s choice groundout to make it 3-1 in the visitors’ favor.

But the Steers have been tested this season and knew how to answer, which they did. Graham strung together a leadoff single and a walk, took advantage of an error, stole home on a wild pitch and knocked a double to left field to retake the lead at 4-3.

A few batters later, Colter Johnson scored when the Vernon pitcher was called for a balk to make it 5-3.

“You saw a lot of unselfish (at bats) because they did take some borderline pitches that were 3-1, and they could have very easily got out of themselves and made it a selfish AB, and they didn’t and they took a team AB,” McGee said.

The sixth inning is where Graham put the game out of reach. In that inning, the Steers had four hits and four walks and a Vernon error to score six runs. Graham loaded the bases for one of their seniors in Loesch, who hit a triple to deep center field to clear the bases and bring in three runs.

Loesch then scored on a wild pitch during the next at bat, another senior McCain walked and the third senior Castro doubled to right field to score him. Castro later came around to score on another wild pitch to give the Steers their 11-3 lead.

In the seventh and final inning, Loesch took the mound to close it out for Graham. The senior came into the game having thrown just 1/3 of an inning on the season, and though he did give up a run to make it 11-4, he got the job done by inducing a game-ending double play to seal the victory.

McGee was pleased with the whole team’s performance but was especially grateful for the efforts of his seniors in this game and for their contributions to the program.

“(The seniors) all bring something different to the table. They’re all different players and you gotta have them all,” he said. “They bring hard work, they bring being a great teammate, they bring doing the right thing and that’s what I like.”

The Steers return to district play with a matchup against Stephenville at home Thursday, March 28 at 7 p.m.