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Talon McGrorty has painted masterpieces whenever he’s been on the mound this season for the Warrenton High School Warriors. Tuesday at Banks might have been his best one yet.

In order to reach their first state championship game since 2019, Warrenton needed to go through league foe Banks. After beating Valley Catholic on Saturday afternoon, the Warriors were looking at another league opponent. For the third time this season, the matchup on the mound was McGrorty vs. Wyatt Hesselman.

The game went exactly as expected through the first five innings. Both pitchers were feeding off of each other, putting up scoreless frames.

It took the Warriors six innings to get anything going against Hesselman, but that was all they needed.

Freshman designated hitter Ryan Palmer started things off with a base hit, then Tyson McGrorty doubled to put runners on second and third with two outs. Banks intentionally walked Talon McGrorty and Brayden Greenawald got hit by a pitch, scoring the first run of the game.

The cycle repeated itself in the seventh inning, but this time it was Ryder Sturgell taking one for the team to help the second run to cross the plate.

Two runs were all McGrorty needed as he struck out Wyatt Jackson to end the game and Banks’ title defense.

The 2-0 win sees Warrenton advance to the 3A state championship on Saturday against Brookings-Harbor at PK Park at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Astoria softball undone by one bad inning

Astoria High School softball looked to have everything under control against the Henley Hornets. They had a 2-0 lead on the road and were just nine outs away from punching their ticket to the state title game, but it was not in the cards Tuesday afternoon.

The Hornets scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and Annie Campos once again stood in the Fishermen’s way.

Despite giving up eight hits and seeing multiple runners reach third base with less than two outs, Campos made the pitches required to get out of jams and cool down the scorching hot Fishermen offense. Campos threw 133 pitches while leading the Hornets back to the title game with the 4-2 win.

In March, Campos also foiled Astoria’s hopes for a state championship in basketball with a dominant game on the court for Henley.

The loss on Tuesday marks a disappointing end to another great season for Fishermen softball. Despite losing in the semifinals, Astoria are Cowapa League champions and made it one step further in the playoffs than a year ago. With only one senior, the Fishermen will be back better than ever next season.

Kya Lindell led the offense with a 3-4 day, while Shelby Bruney went 2-3 with one of the two runs batted in. Freshman Taryen Wray capped off her debut season with another home run and Maddie Wilkin had 10 strikeouts in her six innings of work and will go down as the hard-luck loser.

The Fishermen finish their season with a 21-7 record.