Kolbe Bales had an all-time season on the mound, finishing with career-highs in several categories for the Blue Mountain Conference champion Dufur Rangers. In a year of firsts, the Rangers had their high regular season ranking of No. 1 for that final two months, were the No. 1-seeded entering state action, added a program-best 24-2 record, and vaulted to their deepest postseason run in program history, the semifinals.
No. 1-seeded Dufur learned a valuable lesson from Wednesday’s 2A/1A state opener against 16th-seeded Bandon – if you take anything for granted, it could come back to bite you.
Coming off a two-game sweep against Sherman, the Rangers hit the field against 3A Riverside and pounded out 14 hits, received 12 walks and stole eight bases in a six-inning, 19-9 mercy-ruled win Monday at Dufur City Park.
Saturday at Armand Larive Middle School in Hermiston, the No. 9-ranked Rangers walloped Union in a league doubleheader by final scores of 12-1 and 11-5 to run their winning streak to 15 games, 10 of those coming in Blue Mountain Conference contests.
The Dufur Rangers won their sixth and seventh games in a row to start the season Saturday, with a two-game sweep over Grant Union by scores of 12-7 and 11-1 in a pair of 2A baseball games played in Burns.
The Dufur Rangers moved their record to 3-0 after a two-game sweep of St. Paul Saturday afternoon by final scores of 11-1 and 17-7 in a baseball doubleheader played in Moro.
The Dufur Rangers looked to be in mid-season form Monday in a non-league baseball game on the road against 3A Riverside.
DUFUR – Last season, the Rangers posted a 12-15 overall record, and advanced to the Blue Mountain Conference championship, earning a state berth. Dufur lost to eventual state champion Burns in its playoff opener, but that performance, coupled with the return of all-state winners Kolbe Bales, Connor Uhalde, and Bailey Keever, fuels this team for bigger and better things in 2017.
The Dufur Rangers were a little over two minutes away from a return to Baker City. So close, yet so far. Dufur battled back from a six-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a 52-50 lead with time running out, but Powder Valley ended the game on a 7-0 run to capture a 57-52 victory Friday in a boys’ state first-round hoops contest played in North Powder.
DUFUR – Senior guards Bailey Keever and Connor Uhalde may pick up most of the headlines, but the Dufur Ranger post players Curtis Crawford, Kolbe Bales, Tabor McLaughlin and Travis Lucas have put in a workmanlike effort to help put this team within range of a Baker City berth. That quartet combined for 18 points and controlled the paint in a 63-38 victory over Country Christian Tuesday.
