The Dufur baseball team celebrates with Brent Sumner at home plate after the senior hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning Wednesday. Sumner’s home run was the first of his career and helped the Rangers jump out to a 7-0 lead.
The Dufur baseball team celebrates with Brent Sumner at home plate after the senior hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning Wednesday. Sumner’s home run was the first of his career and helped the Rangers jump out to a 7-0 lead.
Looking more like the team that won 15 straight regular season games instead of the one that lost its final five, Dufur crushed Toledo 16-3 Wednesday night in the first round of the 1A/2A state playoffs.
“We’ve been trying to find our way back to where we were and hopefully this is an indication that we’re back,” Dufur head coach CS Little said. “We finally started hitting the ball like we’re capable. Our bats came alive and we hit the ball like we’re known to.”
The Rangers led 7-0 after the first inning and finished the game with 18 hits.
Connor Uhalde led off the inning with a ground rule double.
After RBI singles by Bryson Caldwell, Kolbe Bales and Nick Little, senior Brent Sumner hit the first home run of his career—a three-run shot to left field.
“I just tried to do my job and hit the ball,” Sumner said. “It was exhilarating. It felt great to come back in and see everyone cheering.”
With a 7-0 cushion, Bales dominated Toledo on the mound. The sophomore lefthander pitched all seven innings and recorded 14 strikeouts.
“It’s always good to get seven runs in the first inning and start out 7-0,” Bales said. “That helped me succeed throughout the game because I knew I had those bats behind me.”
The Boomers scored all three on their runs in the top of the second on back-to-back home runs to the short porch in right field.
Bales settled down and allowed just three hits over the final five innings.
“I just started changing up my pitches and changes up my speeds,” Bales said. “I threw my curveballs and breaking balls. I was just trying to mix it up and keep my pitches down because the ones up high were the ones they hit.”
Dufur added a run in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Bailey Keever.
The Rangers scored their final eight runs in the fifth inning.
Trever Tibbets, Sumner and Keever all had RBI doubles.
“When we hit the ball like that, we’re tough to beat,” coach Little said. “It was good to see balls go in the gaps. We’ve been hitting the ball, just right at people. We’re back to the trademark slamming the ball.
“This time of year, you’ve got to hit the ball against good pitchers and we hit the ball against a pretty good pitcher tonight. He [Ryan Otis] normally shuts teams down.”
Dufur, the No. 7 seed in the state tournament, will spend tonight in Longview, Wash., and then travel to Astoria Friday to play No. 2 Knappa.
The Loggers are 24-0 and have outscored their opponents 345-44, which includes a 19-2 win over Lost River on Wednesday.
But Knappa is beatable. Dufur proved that last season when it nearly knocked off the Loggers before coming up just short and falling 4-3.
“They’re always tough,” Little said. “It should be a great match up.”
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