For you, Brody! With ‘an angel looking down on us,’ South Umpqua completes magical run to 3A Oregon baseball title

By René Ferrán | Photos by Dan Brood 

KEIZER — The black No. 2 jersey hung from the roof as the South Umpqua players stood at the top step of the Volcanoes Stadium third-base dugout Friday afternoon.

They needed just one final strike to storm the field and celebrate the school’s first OSAA baseball state championship since 1979.

And when lefty Andrew Camp recorded that final strike to set off the dogpile after the Lancers’ 10-2 victory over Santiam Christian in the Class 3A final in Keizer, Louden Cole made sure the No. 2 jersey joined in the fun. 

The jersey would have belonged to freshman Brody Standley, who’d been part of the football program that reached the state final in November, playing JV ball despite a congenital heart defect that limited his ability but not his passion. 

“For a kid who was born with half a heart, he came out every day to practice and did what he can,” said Steve Stebbins, who coaches the football and baseball programs. “He didn’t have the endurance, and he was 80 pounds dripping wet, but he came out there every day and was awesome for us.”

Standley planned to turn out for baseball this spring, but his condition worsened over the winter break. He went to the hospital just before the start of the second semester, and he passed away after a 70-day fight just before the Lancers’ playoff run started.

“We told his mom we were gonna win the state championship for him,” said junior Jace Johnson, who allowed one run in 6⅔ innings and drove in three runs. “He was going to be a part of our team. So, we let them know every time we won and wore our Team Brody shirts to represent him. We’re very thankful to win this for him.”

Johnson and his cousin, senior shortstop Kade Johnson (4 for 4, two doubles, a triple and three RBIs), were among 10 baseball players on the football team that lost the 3A state final to Siuslaw in November.

That would have been motivation enough to finish the job on the same day as South Umpqua’s graduation. But when the team learned of Standley’s death, their rallying cry became one simple word.

“All of our breaks as a team were, ‘Brody!’” Kade Johnson said. “That’s our guy. We were doing this whole run for Brody, and it means a lot to do this for him and his family.”

The run almost ended in the semifinals Tuesday against Yamhill-Carlton, when the Lancers (25-5) rallied after falling behind 6-5 in the seventh inning to walk off the Tigers, 7-6.

Stebbins said he felt “like we have an angel looking down on us. I thought he was with us in that semifinal game when we came from behind. It was just a terrible loss because he was such a great kid.”

Standley’s magic wasn’t needed Friday, though, as the Lancers jumped to a 3-0 first-inning lead, then survived a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second with just one run allowed.

“Part of the playoffs, especially when you advance a little deeper, is you’ve got to be able to handle big moments like that,” Stebbins said. “Jace did a good job there, and we made a couple plays behind him to get out of those innings, because it could have been really interesting if we don’t get out of them.”

The Lancers chased Santiam Christian starter Camden Carley with one out in the bottom of the second. Kade Johnson sent the first pitch by Jadon Roth for a long double off the left-center field wall to plate one run, and Jace Johnson followed with an RBI groundout to push the lead to 5-1.

“We thought if we could jump on them early, that we could do it,” Kade Johnson said. “That’s what we did, and we just kept on top of them the whole time.”

That was more than enough support for Jace Johnson, who settled down to scatter eight hits, walking two and striking out seven. The only other run he allowed was a leadoff home run by Oregon State commit Ely Kennel in the seventh.

“It’s always tough when you have guys in scoring position and can’t score them,” Kennel said. “He had a really good slider, and he was throwing it to the right spots. He threw a lot of strikes and wasn’t walking a lot of guys. He was making us have to beat him.”

Johnson finally hit his pitch limit after Jacob Yenchik’s two-out double, and Camp closed the door on the Eagles (20-9), who rebounded from a 4-5 start to reach their first final since 2016.

“A state championship is not something that everyone gets to do,” said Kennel, who won one in football as a sophomore quarterback in 2019. “I’m just very grateful for the run. As coach (Matt Nosack) was just saying, this was a group that really made the most of what we had. Today just wasn’t our day, but at the end of the day, I’m thankful for these guys and thankful to God that we made it.”

The Lancers hadn’t won a playoff game since 2002 before this spring’s run (0-6 since then) and hadn’t posted a winning record in a full season since their previous postseason appearance in 2016.

But after getting swept by Cascade Christian to open league play, the Lancers caught fire, winning 15 of their last 16 games — including the biggest one of all.

“We thought we should have had it in football, but we just came up short,” Kade Johnson said. “So, we wanted that redemption of getting that state title. It feels amazing.”