Something had to give.

The Wilsonville and Canby baseball teams came into their Thursday, May 22, matchup at Canby High School sporting identical 14-0 conference records – but only the Wildcats left with their perfect season intact.

Wilsonville scratched across single runs in each of the game’s first three innings, got a shutdown pitching performance from senior starter Wade Hagey and rode those to a key 3-0 win over the Cougars.

“I think (the key is) just taking every game one game at a time,” said Wilsonville senior catcher Mark Wiepert, who went 2 for 4 at the plate with a double and two RBIs. “Every game we’re trying to play our best baseball. That’s been the statement since day one and here we are on game 26. I’m proud of this team.”

“It’s huge,” said Wildcat sophomore right fielder Ben Wiepert, who went 1 for 3 at the plate with a solo homer, one RBI and one run scored. “That’s a pretty good team win there, but it’s a dogfight every game and we don’t look at any game differently.”

“It’s really good for us,” added Hagey, who threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on three hits and six walks while striking out four. “Canby is a really good team, but like Ben said, it’s one game at a time.”

With the win, the top-ranked Wildcats’ 26th straight, Wilsonville improved to 15-0 in Northwest Oregon Conference play and 26-0 overall. Next up, the Wildcats host Canby in their regular season finale at 5 p.m. Friday, May 23.

No. 3 Canby, meanwhile, saw its 15-game winning streak snapped and fell to 14-1 in NWOC play and 22-3 overall. The Cougars were led by senior shortstop Hayden Davis (he went 1 for 2 at the plate and walked twice), senior pitcher/third baseman Brady Ackerman (he went 1 for 4 with a double, and also threw five innings, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks while striking out three), and senior first baseman Colby Herren (he went 1 for 1 with a walk).

The Wildcats got things going right from the start of the contest, with senior Connor Johnston opening the game with a single to right, freshman Beau Johnson following with a walk and Mark Wiepert adding an RBI single past third base for a 1-0 lead.

After Canby’s first at-bat was derailed by a double play, Ben Wiepert hit a one-out solo homer to left for a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.

“I felt pretty good coming into this game so it was nice to connect on one finally,” Ben Wiepert said of his first homer of the season.

After Hagey got three straight outs to escape a two-on, no-out jam in Canby’s half of the second, the Wildcats added their final run in the third when Johnson led off with a single to center, then scored when Mark Wiepert doubled to left.

The last real drama in the game came in the bottom of the seventh when the Cougars loaded the bases with two outs before Wilsonville senior reliever Owen Eggert struck out Ackerman to end the contest.

“After the fourth or fifth inning, I felt like I had my stuff,” Hagey said. “The last couple innings, I just kept telling myself I was better than them and that’s all I had to think and then just throw strikes.”

“There’s no selfish guys on this team and you see it in the dugout,” Mark Wiepert added. “We’ve got a factory going in there as far as guys picking each other up and just a positive momentum that they’re bringing.”