Through the ashes: Mtn. View’s game-winning baseball escapes fire

(Update: Adding video, comments by coach, former player)

Fire damaged team shed, but special ball escaped with a little more character

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A historic comeback for the Mountain View Cougars baseball team back in 2018 was immortalized on a team ball. Every player and coach signed the game ball, which this week gained more character, in an unfortunate way.

The Cougars were down 13- 1 in the final inning, but managed to score 14 runs and win the game with a walk-off hit from then-junior Shandon Malikowski.

 "It was two outs bottom of the seventh -- every little kid's dream," Malikowski said Thursday. "I happened to be the one that stepped up to the plate and hit a little shallow blooper to right field that scored the run in."

After the game, players and coaches signed the game ball and hung it up at the entrances to the team's clubhouse.

The game ball was heavily damaged in a fire on Tuesday night at the baseball team's clubhouse (locker room and storage shed), traced to a failed electric wall heater.

"A lot of people cared for that clubhouse," Mtn. View baseball Coach Ryan Johnson said. "It meant something to them, for all the ones that were lucky enough to hang a jersey in those lockers."

While the ball is able to be salvaged, jerseys and a few bat bags were damaged by the blaze.

Fire crews were on scene quickly and were able to save the team's gear from the blaze, which broke out about a half-hour after practice concluded.

It's too early to know when Mountain View will build a new clubhouse, but Malikowski is looking forward to hanging the historic ball up again.

"The amount of stories this baseball has now. It's going right back up when the new one is built," Malikowski said. "It deserves to be in there now, more than anything."