Grant Union Jr.:Sr. High School/Contributed Image

EUGENE — For the third time in as many years, Grant Union beat Special District 7 foe Weston-McEwen for the 2A/1A title on Friday, June 6, at Jane Sanders Stadium at the University of Oregon.

The Prospectors took control of the game early and never let up in a 10-2 victory over the TigerScots.

“Three years in a row this has happened,” W-M coach Jeff Griggs said. “It’s kind of scary. I told the girls there are no more games to be played after today. You played in the last one, but for some it was a little disheartening.”

It was the fourth consecutive title game for Grant Union (20-8), which lost to Lakeview 5-3 in 2022.

On Friday, the Prospectors saw Reece Jacobs and Grace Kenyon drive in three runs a piece, and Addy Northway strike out seven to give first-year coach Tim Boethin a championship.

“This group of seniors is just phenomenal. I can’t say enough,” Boethin said. “We had issues at times early in the season, throwing the ball around. But we got ourselves in the right position toward the end of the year.”

Grant Union opened the game with one run in the first inning as a double by Jacobs sent Northway across the plate. The TigerScots (23-6) had runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the first, but the threat stopped there as Hope Berry popped out the shortstop.

The Protectors struck gold in the second inning, scoring four runs on three hits and two outs to take a 5-0 lead. Savannah Watterson hit a double to center field to drive in two runs, and Jacobs hit a single to left field that scored two runs.

Grant Union went three up, three down in the top of the third, while W-M lit up the scoreboard in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Lily Langford hit a solo home run to left field to make it 5-1.

With two outs on the board, the TigerScots kept fighting. Ava Sams singled up the middle, and then went to second on a passed ball. Bre Ward and Berry each drew a walk to load the bases, only to see Reagan Pickard go down swinging.

“We came down here and we stayed positive when we got down in the game,” Griggs said. “We had a little spark with Lily hitting a bomb over the Oregon fence. Several innings were shutout ball. We thought we had something going there in the seventh.”

Neither team would score again until the seventh inning, where the Prospectors rang up five runs, highlighted by a three-run triple from Grace Kenyon with two outs.

In the bottom of the inning, Kylie Kramer singled to left field to put one run across the plate. With Sams at the plate, Kramer attempted to steal second, but was caught as GU catcher Bristol Bailey threw the ball to shortstop Watterson, who tagged out Kramer to end the game.

“We had our chance to break into the game,” Griggs said. “We left the bases loaded. That was disappointing. We had opportunities, but in a game like this you can’t afford to strand runners. Today, Grant Union was the better team. Tip my hat to them, they played every single playoff game on the road.”

Ward took the loss, giving up 10 runs on eight hits, She struck out 10 and walked six.

Kramer led W-M with two hits, while Langford and Sams each had one. Megan McLouth stole two bases. Northway earned the win in the circle, allowing two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and four walks.

“It wasn’t like we came down and played lousy ball,” Griggs said. “The big story is Northway was able to keep us off balance.”

Jacobs went 2-for-2 with three RBIs for GU, while Northway was 2-for-3, and Watterson was 1-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Langford and Northway were named the Moda Health Players of the Game. Langford also was W-M’s Player of the Game in 2024.

With the win, Grant Union joined an elite group of teams with three or more consecutive state titles. Churchill won four in a row (1980-83), while Churchill (1985-87), Harrisburg (1999-2001), Valley Catholic (2007-09) and Crater (2007-09) won three in a row.