Visiting Pendleton ended Hood River Valley’s unbeaten run in the Intermountain Conference baseball race, edging the Eagles, 5-4, on May 3 in eight innings. Then two days later, in a re-scheduled contest, HRV split a doubleheader on the road at Redmond.
Those results — and Pendleton’s subsequent lost to Ridgeview — left fifth-ranked Hood River (9-2 IMC, 14-6 overall) a game ahead of the Buckaroos (7-3, 11-8) in the IMC loss column.
Hood River was scheduled to host Redmond last Friday, but an unfavorable weather forecast — which proved correct — necessitated the game being switched to Central Oregon. The Eagles won the opener, 4-3, coming from behind to score all its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning (HRV was the designated home team on the Panthers’ field in the opener).
“This was a really hard-earned win on the road,” Coach Max Reitz said. “Joe (Reitz) and (Ryles) Buckley came up with some big hits. Jake (von Lubken) turned in his most gutsy performance of the year against a really powerful offensive team. (Hunter) Hough was poised coming in to finish it off.”
Redmond held a 2-0 lead after three innings before HRV struck with its big fourth frame. Buckley knocked in two of the four Eagle runs, and Reitz and Drew Beam plated the other two. Reitz and Beam were each 2-for-3. Von Lubken scattered seven hits over six innings with five strikeouts. Hough earned the save.
Four errors and a 13-hit Redmond offensive attack hurt Hood River in the second game, which the Panthers won, 11-8. The Panthers clinched the victory with a five-run fourth inning in which HRV had taken a 7-5 lead with five runs of its own in the top of the frame.
Mason Spellecy knocked in five runs with his three hits — a double and two home runs. Joe Reitz scored twice, doubled, and knocked in two runs of his own. “Spelly had a great day at the plate and Keegan Losee did an excellent job in relief keeping us in the game and giving us a chance,” Coach Reitz said.
Losee came on in relief in the fourth and cooled off Redmond’s bat a bit by scattering four hits, and one earned run over the final two and a third innings.
Coach Reitz said, “In game two we made too many mistakes to deserve to win, especially against such a good offensive team. I’ll take a split on the road given the circumstances created by the weather forcing us to play (the games) down in Redmond.”
The Eagles and Panthers were scheduled to play the tiebreaking third game of the series on Tuesday in Hood River. “(That game) is big, but we have Spelly fully rested to start on the mound,” Reitz said of Spellecy. “I like our chances.”
On May 3 at home against Pendleton, the visiting Buckaroos played with a little fire in their bellies, coming off a doubleheader sweep by the Eagles the previous weekend. “They played a typical Pendleton game, fought hard for all eight innings and really pitched well,” Coach Reitz said of the Buckaroos, who outhit HRV, 9-4. “Our guys did, too, and I was especially proud of the two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game.”
The Eagles entered the seventh trailing, 4-3, after Pendleton scored four times in the top of the fourth. Spellecy had been on cruise control to that point before the Buckaroos erased a 3-0 HRV lead.
Hood River chased Pendleton starter Karson Lani when the Eagles scored three times in the third inning. Buckaroo junior Lucas Bensching scattered two hits from the third to seventh innings, striking out four, before Aiden Gunter pitched the eighth inning to earn the save.
“Spelly was great other than a three-batter sequence in the fourth,” Reitz said of his senior right-hander/shortstop. That sequence included No. 9 batter Keefer Breshears’ three-run double, and Gunter’s RBI fly out which scored Payton Lambert.
Spellecy allowed seven hits, four runs (one earned), one walk and struck out five in six innings. Jordan Webber entered in the seventh for HRV and allowed two hits and the game-winning run. Spellecy helped his cause at the plate with two of Hood River’s four hits and knocked in two runs. Von Lubken and Joe Reitz had the other two HRV hits; Reitz scored two runs.
Hood River sent the game into extra innings by knotting things up in the bottom of the seventh. Pendleton’s Easton Corey scored on Jace Otteson’s two-out single in the top of the eighth for its winning run.
“Webber pitched really well in a pressure game,” Coach Reitz said of his sophomore hurler. “We just didn’t general enough offense and credit their pitching for that.”
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