Dallas dashes HRV baseball’s hopes for another deep playoff run

HRV Head Coach Erich Harjo expressed disappointment that his team did not play at their usual level — at a particularly inopportune time.

“We played an uncharacteristically bad game for our standards,” he said. “When you get down to the state playoffs, you’re playing for your life and playing for survival and anyone can have a bad day at the worst possible time, and that’s what we did.”

HRV’s two runs came during the second inning on a single from Jacob Smith that should have been a routine fly out. However, a miscommunication between Dallas’ outfielders resulted in a muffed catch and gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead, scoring Greyson Losee and Casey Ward.

However, one bad inning for HRV was all it took for Dallas to wipe out the home team lead and go up for good. The Dragons suddenly seemed able to hit everything starting pitcher Isaiah Enriquez threw at them in the top of the third, stringing together hits and scoring four runs in the process. Four of the Dragons’ six hits came in that inning.

“I think they made an adjustment on Isaiah and I think Isaiah didn’t execute pitches like he has in the past, he left a couple up, there was the error at shortstop… you can’t do that if you’re not scoring runs,” Harjo explained. “(Dallas) did a good job of taking advantage of our mistakes.”

Harjo retired Enriquez (five hits, two walks, four earned runs, strikeout) after that inning and subbed in Losee on the mound. The freshman provided a bright spot in a frustrating game, pitching well, while getting valuable playoff experience. He closed out the game with a hit, three walks, no earned runs, and struck out two batters.

“He did great, he didn’t treat it like anything different,” Harjo noted. “It wasn’t too big for him. He did his job.”

The offense wasn’t able to rally, though, confounded by Dallas pitcher Jaret Stewart. The Dragons added another run in the fifth for good measure. Enriquez and Ward managed doubles and Caden Leiblein had a single, but that was it for HRV.

For a team that has gotten used to going far in the state tournament, Wednesday’s early exit from the playoffs marked a departure from HRV baseball’s typical postseason narrative the past few years.

“It’s different,” Harjo said Thursday afternoon. “I feel like we have the right talent to get there. I feel like all the pieces were in place. But at the same time, it’s been an inconsistent year.”

The Eagles will lose starting seniors Adam Cameron, Enriquez, Morgan Williams, Lucas Viuhkola and Ward to graduation, along with reserves Jacob Smith, Brent Murahashi, and Chet Frasier. For some of those seniors, this was the first season they saw varsity playing time, which Harjo said was “a testament to the strength of the varsity program,” as other teams often have underclassmen as reserves. And with that in mind, Harjo knows there will be equally capable athletes — some new, some seasoned — ready to rise to the challenge in 2018.

“We’re not running out of talent,” he noted. “It’s not like we have to hit the reset button and start all over.”