By Jarrid Denney | For The Oregonian/OregonLive

Photos by Leon Neuschwander, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

KEIZER — If you’re looking to build a case against specialization in one sport, Banks High School could help make a pretty compelling argument.

Banks secured the Class 4A baseball state title Saturday at Volcanoes Stadium with a 3-1 victory over Henley to cap a historic school year. With the win, Banks becomes the second school in the history of Oregon high school athletics to claim state championships in football, basketball and baseball in the same school year, joining North Valley in 1984-85.

In the 98-year history of Banks athletics, a boys team had never brought home a state title until last fall, when Banks topped Seaside to win the 4A football championship.

“Winning state titles isn’t supposed to be normal,” Banks senior Hayden Vandehey said, smiling.

Vandehey, who pitched a complete game and batted leadoff, is one of three athletes who played on all three championship teams. Jarred Evans started at second base and Blake Gobel started at first base Saturday.

Naturally, those three combined to put one final touch on the storybook season. With two outs in the seventh inning, Vandehey induced a ground ball to second, where Evans scooped and threw to Gobel for the final out.

Vandehey barely had time to celebrate before he was buried in a dogpile.

“I’ve been best friends with Hayden and Blake since I was in the third grade,” Evans said. “We won a state title when we were younger. We’ve just been best friends ever since.”

For many of Banks’ athletes, the foundation of the title trifecta was built with early-morning football workouts in the fall and has rarely provided a day off since.

“These are my brothers and we go to war every single day with each other,” Vandehey said. “We woke up at 6:30 and went and worked out with our football coach for these moments -- just putting in the hard work and hoping it would pay off.”

Evans, Gobel and Vandehey are just a few of the numerous multi-sport athletes who contributed to Banks’ title-winning teams. That meant plenty of busy days that sometimes featured practices for multiple sports.

It also meant that many of Banks' key baseball players had racked up so much playoff experience before Saturday that a state final wasn’t a daunting occasion.

“I’ve never really done the whole AAU (basketball) thing — the whole travel team thing,” said Gobel, the 4A basketball player of the year who will play tight end at Eastern Washington. “We just get it done out here. We practice hard. We work hard and we made it happen.”

Vandehey held a dangerous Henley offense to one run on seven hits while striking out three. The Hornets jumped on the right-hander early when Andrew Reynolds crushed a double on the first pitch of the game and Blake Loney drove him in two batters later.

But Vandehey escaped further damage, and he received all of the offensive support he would need in the bottom of the inning.

Colton Hesselman walked with two outs, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Dakota Bunn’s single. Bunn advanced to second on a balk by Henley starter Dylan Fitts and scored on Gobel's single to right.

An inning later, Fitts balked with Trask Applegate on third, giving Banks an insurance run.

“They said (Fitts) wasn’t coming set,” Henley coach Adam Randall said. “He was excited; he was amped. He kind of ran through a couple of stops there, but to his credit, settled down and made some really nice pitches after that.”

Fitts held Banks in check from that point and struck out three over 4⅔ innings. But the Hornets weren’t able to find the big hit they needed. Vandehey induced a 6-4-3 double play in the fifth and a 1-6-3 double play in the sixth to shut down two potential rallies.

“We just got out there and took care of business,” Evans said. “We really just focused on the next inning and the next out every pitch. We just tried to get it done one thing at a time.”

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