The Thurston High School baseball program has been dominant and 2-way star Grady Saunders fits in quite well.

Having made history winning back-to-back 5A Oregon State Championships in 2023 & 2024 during Saunders’ freshman and sophomore year of high school, the feeling of this said dominance has always been there.

There’s a lot of history of wins at Thurston and Saunders carries the pressure, but knows how to handle it in the high intensitive scenarios.

“My team has been pretty dominant and I've been a big part of it, so I feel like just being able to produce for my team is the main thing. Every time I go up to bat, every time I'm on the mound, I'm just trying to produce for the team to win,” Saunders said.

Saunders gets chills when thinking about his first state win, not knowing the true level of impact that he was going to have.

“I think that first state championship was one of the better days in my life. All the emotions with all these friends I've played with forever and some people leaving,” Saunders said.

Walk off‼️‼️@ThsColtBaseball wins the 5A State Championship on this unbelievably close play at the plate after ‘26 @GradySaunders21 (@BeaverBaseball) drove one into the RCF gap and came around to score the game winning run @prepbaseball || @ShooterHunt pic.twitter.com/hYwrnV7BiY

— Prep Baseball Oregon (@PrepBaseballOR) June 4, 2023

Once you get that first winning feeling, you hold onto it and then you want to strive to do it again and again.

“We were just so dominant,” Saunders said.

Located in Springfield, Oregon, Saunders was always close to the Oregon State Beavers. Both in blood and proximity. Both of his parents went to OSU and he grew up less than 50 miles away from Goss Stadium.

“I hope to win a national championship”  Saunders said.

In Corvallis, baseball success is of the utmost importance to the culture of Beaver baseball according to Saunders. 

“I think keeping the energy around Oregon State Baseball is very important. I feel like all the games are very energetic, especially later in the year, like playoff games and the Civil War,” Saunders said.

Saunders hopes to eventually make it to the next level, but for right now it's the rise and grind that he’s focused on.

“(I hope to) get as good as I can to help out the team and help out myself just so I can better my family and better the community,” Saunders said.

‘26 Grady Saunders (OR, @BeaverBaseball)

FB: 93-95
SL: 79-82
CH: 85

Dynamic, athletic mover moving hoppy heater in/out. Uptempo with aggressive mvmt patterns. Applied pressure early on counts allowing avg secondary to play up.

Good PNW follow#MLBDraft || @PrepBaseballOR pic.twitter.com/5QgKH9qDVb

— Shooter Hunt (@ShooterHunt) August 8, 2025

Growing up in a small town, Saunders went alongside his family to his older sister’s softball games, rooting his love to play baseball by being around the other kids. While a small town consists of not many things, the main thing that Saunders wants to be able to do is to be a role model.

“I think being a big impact in an area like mine, especially if I do progress into like professional baseball, I feel like coming back and being a part of the community would be a big thing to me,” Saunders said.

From watching his sister play softball to taking the field on his own. Saunders will walk up to “Search and Rescue” by Drake aiming to add another state championship to his resume.