The two-time Columbia River Conference and defending 5A baseball state champion Hood River Valley Eagles begin their quest for a repeat when they host an OSAA first-round state tournament contest at 4:30 p.m. May 25. The second-ranked Eagles (20-6), guided by Head Coach Erich Harjo, will face a yet to-be-determined opponent Wednesday at HRV’s Traner Field, where the Eagles have recorded a 10-1 record.
“We’re just taking things one game at a time and we’re just trying to have a consistent approach every day,” said Harjo. “I think when other teams come here to play the defending state champions, then it probably puts a little additional pressure on them. We have a pretty mature team that understands the game and how to go about doing every-thing the right way and we’ve had lots of fun this year.”
The Eagles lost their regular season finale 9-7 to the 6A Jesuit Crusaders (20-7) in a non-league matchup Wednesday at Jesuit High School in Portland. HRV fell behind 9-1 after three innings, but then had an impressive comeback, outscoring Jesuit 6-0 over the final four frames to give themselves a chance. The Eagles had the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh inning, but were just unable to score at the end. Montana Kurahara led the Eagle’s fourth ranked offense (7.42 runs per game average) as he bat-ted 2-for-4 with three RBI.
“Patrick Harvey has been our top pitcher all year, he’s worked very hard and he’s got the right mentality to help lead our team,” said Harjo. “Skyler Hunter has done a great job as our leadoff batter and he’s played phenomenal all year to help spark our offense. We like to see him get on base and see him running and then bring him home. He’s an extremely great player who is really fun to watch too. I think we have all the pieces of the puzzle with players right where they need to be at. Everyone buys into the game plan of scoring early to put pressure on the opponent right off the bat. Knowing we’re hosting every playoff game is very important to us and these guys love it. They love playing for Hood River and all of our fans.”
Kurahara is one of eight seniors who pro-vide the team with experience and leader-ship. Other talented seniors who are also expected to make key contributions include Hunter, Harvey, Chase Lariza, Dallas Buckley, Kellan Duffy, Andy Schmidt and Andrew Roberts.
“It’s been lots of fun being around these guys, because we’ve all been good friends since we were 10 years old,” said Roberts. “We’ve had lots of fun all year and we’re hoping to continue doing that and just play our hardest in every game. Our pitching staff has been great this year with Patrick, Isaiah Enriquez and Conner Coerper. They’ve all improved very much since the beginning of the season. Our hitting is better than it’s been in the last few years and I think that’s the biggest strength of our team. We’re hop-ing to get back to the state championship game and win it again, which is something that would really be like a dream come true.”
Harvey is HRV’s ace pitcher who has a 6-1 record with an earned run average of 2.90 and a total of 51 strikeouts in 51 innings. Hunter, HRV’s shortstop, leads the Eagles offense in three categories. Hunter has scored 31 runs, with 28 RBI and has a .407 batting average.
“This is just a great experience and I love being a part of this team,” said Schmidt. “I love playing baseball with all my friends and it’s just been an awesome season. As long as we all focus well and do a good job, then we’ll continue to have momentum and hopefully keep winning.”
The finals are June 4 at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer. If the Eagles win the title, they’ll be the first back-to-back champions in the nine-year history of the 5A level.
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