Playing for the first time in nearly two years, The Dalles High Riverhawk baseball team held its 2021 season opener Saturday in a nonleague matchup versus the Mountain View Cougars of Bend. The more experienced Cougars - with two seniors and eight juniors - proved to be a very formidable opponent against a young Riverhawk squad that includes 10 freshmen and no seniors. The Cougars won both games, 19-1 and 16-0, at Quinton Street Ballpark.
“A lot of these kids haven’t played baseball in two years and it definitely looked like it at times today with all the mistakes we made,” said Coach Steve Sugg, whose assistant coaches include the father-and-son duo of Ed and Bailey Ortega, the latter a 2016 The Dalles High graduate. “This is the youngest team I’ve ever had, so there were lots of young kids playing their first game and they were probably a little nervous. As young as we are, we should still be more competitive, and we shouldn’t have 10-run games.”
In Game 1, the Cougars jumped in front 3-0 in the first inning and then got seven in the second. The Dalles came back in bottom of the frame and scored a run on an RBI double by junior William Hoover (1-for-2), which helped the Riverhawks avoid a shutout and make it 10-1. Hoover, freshman William Lee (1-for-1, single) and sophomore Nathan Hedges (1-2, double) had the only hits for The Dalles.
“I told the kids after the game that it’s not about wins and losses, but it’s about how much we improve from game to game, so we should be a better baseball team on Tuesday than we were today,” said Sugg about the Riverhawks’ next contest (results came after the printed edition deadline). “Each day we just have to get better and better and I just want to see improvement from game to game. At the end of this six-week season, we should be a pretty good baseball team.”
Mountain View continued pounding hits (nine total) and capitalized on The Dalles mistakes (eight errors) and added five runs in the third and four in the fifth for the final margin. The Dalles sophomore Braden Schwartz started on the mound and he had three strikeouts and allowed three hits. He was followed on the mound by freshmen relief pitchers Sam Shaver and William Lee, who pitched the third, fourth and fifth innings.
“It’s really nice to be out here playing again, especially since we lost the whole season of our freshman year last season,” said Schwartz. “There was a lot of errors and we had way too many of those, but we have a lot more games to play, so we’ll improve and get better. I think we can definitely get to where we need to be by practicing more and playing more games.”
For Schwartz and sophomores Riley Brock, Evan Baldy, Diego Gonzales and Hedges, it marked the first game of their The Dalles High School baseball career since their freshman season last year was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m just really glad to be out here playing, because it’s been a long time since we played a high school baseball game,” said Gonzales, a center fielder who had the only hit for The Dalles in Game 2 with a second-inning single. “It felt good to get a hit and I just saw a pitch that I felt like I could drive and that’s what I did. We have lots of room for improvement, but it’s going to take time since we’re such a young team and we have lots of stuff to work on. There’s nothing on the line, such as playoffs or anything like that so this just gives us a chance to improve throughout the season.”
Mountain View led 2-0 going into the top of the third inning, but then the Cougars got things rolling offensively (11 total hits), aided by six total Riverhawk errors.
The Dalles will try to bounce back Saturday at home in an 11 a.m. contest in a Class 5A Intermountain Conference game versus the Ridgeview Ravens (1-1). A second contest of the doubleheader follows at 3 p.m. against Mountain View. The 15-game schedule continues with The Dalles playing the defending (2019) IMC champion Pendleton Buckaroos at home April 27 at 4:30 p.m.
Commented