How West Salem softball is hitting its stride ahead of 6A postseason

A balanced mix of dominant pitching, consistent hitting, and impromptu team dinners have helped West Salem softball emerge as one of the top 6A teams in the state this season.

And yet, with the regular season winding down and the postseason just around the corner, those within the program feel the best is still yet to come.

Led by standout junior right-handed pitcher Braeli Martin, junior infielder Mya Ward, and sophomore outfielder Kali Parks, the Titans are 17-5 on the year, 8-0 in Central Valley Conference play, and currently sit at No. 7 in the OSAA rankings.

If you ask head coach Ty Nicholson, though, West Salem has yet to produce a complete performance this spring — which could be a positive sign of things to come.

“We haven’t peaked. No offense to Braeli or our bats, but we haven’t had a game where she’s totally on and our bats are totally on,” Nicholson said. “I think when that day comes, it’s gonna be kind of scary for the other team.”

Dominant West Salem softball team has strong ties

In 17 appearances this season, Martin owns a 12-4 record and a tidy 1.61 ERA. She has struck out 157 batters and walked just 32 while logging 109.0 out of a possible 140.0 innings for the Titans.

She also leads the team with 26 RBI.

Ward, who was a third-team all-state selection last season, is hitting .433, slugging a team-best .821, and has driven in 24 runs. Parks is pacing the Titans with a .500 batting average, .543 on-base percentage, five triples, and 13 stolen bases.

Martin has always been a talented hurler for the Titans. But she has taken a significant step forward this spring by consistently working her way into advantageous counts and attacking hitters. As Nicholson describes it, she is becoming less of a “thrower” and more of “pitcher.”

“When I’m pitching, it’s just been about being smart,” Martin said. “It’s just knowing where I need to throw the ball during the count.”

Her willingness to do that has also been bolstered by a steady defense behind her. In 22 games, the Titans have committed just 26 errors.

“I feel like this season I’ve been trusting the defense more,” Martin said. “They all can make really great plays, so I just trust them; it works. It has been working.”

That trust wasn’t built overnight.

West Salem is, for the most part, a young team. It features four seniors, but also five sophomores or juniors who play regularly. The majority of the Titans’ nucleus has been playing together, in some capacity, for the past six years.

“It’s kind of like a family,” Martin said.

Nicholson and his staff haven’t organized team dinners this season, because they haven’t had to. The default setting for West’s players after most games has been to go out to dinner together.

“It’s been about them realizing, ‘Hey, you’ve played with all these people,” Nicholson said. “Zero drama; they get along. They like being around each other more than most. … It’s a huge deal — they’ve just known each other for so long. That’s where the trust comes in.”

'Our emphasis is one game at a time'

The Titans had hopes of locking up the conference title on Friday when they faced off with second-place South Salem (10-8, 5-3) at Western Oregon University. But that game was postponed due to rain and rescheduled for May 9.

The schedule alteration now sets the stage for a chaotic stretch of four games in nine days to close out league play.

If West Salem successfully navigates the remainder of its regular season schedule, it could put itself in an advantageous position to make its deepest postseason run in more than a decade.

As has been the case all season, though, the Titans aren’t concerned with what's ahead.

“Our emphasis is one game at a time,” Nicholson said. “I’ve told our players stories — I’ve had some really good teams who lost in the first round to teams they probably should not have lost to because they were focused on the ‘state champion team.’ I think when teams get ahead of yourselves, you start overlooking somebody. That’s where the problem lies; you don’t come out with intensity for a game because you’re looking ahead.

“So we try to keep that one game at a time mindset; we don’t want to think that far ahead.”

Jarrid Denney covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at JDenney@salem.gannett.com or on X @jarrid_denney

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: West Salem Titans softball emerging as 6A title contender