Still hampered by a lingering sickness, Blake Davis mustered up enough energy to help The Dalles junior varsity baseball team to victory.
Davis drove in Jake Roetcisoender with the eventual game-winning run in the sixth inning and then slammed the door shut in the seventh to lead the Riverhawks’ 11-10 triumph over Sherman Tuesday at Quinton Street Ballpark.
In the batter’s box, Davis was 3 for 5 with three runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base, and on the mound, the southpaw tossed four innings of three-hit ball with four strikeouts and no walks.
“He hasn’t been feeling well over the last few days and he still is a bulldog out there,” said TD coach Leroy Tharp. “I love coaching him because I know what I am going to get out of him. He comes in and gives me everything he’s got, all the time.”
With the score deadlocked at 10-apiece in the bottom of the sixth inning, TD sent five batters to the plate against Sherman reliever Treve Martin.
Roetcisoender singled and stole second base to lead off the frame, and one out later, Roetcisoender advanced to third on a wild pitch.
On a 1-0 pitch, Davis hit a slow dribbler to Kyle Fields at first base for the out, but Roetcisoender crossed home plate to give the Hawks an 11-10 lead.
Kristos Kiser followed with a two-out double to left and moved to third base on a wild pitch and was stranded as the final out was recorded on a groundout to first.
Staked to the one-run lead entering the top of the seventh inning, Davis gave up a bloop single to Cal Homer, putting the tying run on base for the Huskies.
Davis settled in and recorded a 1-4-3 double play, and then got some defensive help from Kiser on the final out on a running stab of a liner down the left field line to end the game.
“They persevered. To make a comeback from making a lot of mistakes during the game and sticking with it, I told them that I was proud of them,” Tharp said. “They kept battling and made some plays down the stretch that ultimately won us the game.”
Both teams traded leads through the first two innings, until the third when the Huskies scored five runs on five hits and a walk.
Jacob Justesen and Maverick Winslow stroked back-to-back two-out, two-run doubles, and Brett Troutman chased home Winslow with an RBI single to center to give the Huskies a 9-5 advantage.
The Dalles, however, rallied for two runs in bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by Zac Anderson and Kiser scored on an error to inch the Hawks to within a 9-7 score.
In the fifth, TD regained the lead at 10-9 after a three-run spurt, as KC Ratliff and Davis scored on a wild pitch and a throwing error, and Gabe Helseth crossed the plate on a bases-loaded walk to Michael Armstrong.
Treve Martin tied things up at 10-10 in the sixth on an RBI single to drive in Brett Troutman.
Martin pitched one inning of relief, allowed one run on two hits with a strikeout to pick up the loss.
Roetcisoender ended up going 3 for 3 with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, two runs scored and three stolen bases, and Anderson was 3 for 4 with two RBIs to pace The Dalles’ 15-hit attack.
Kiser had three hits, a walk, a run scored and an RBI, Helseth and Armstrong tacked on a hit and an RBI each, and Mac Abbas went 1 for 3 with a walk, a run scored and two RBIs.
The Dalles pitchers, Jordan Wetmore, Ratliff and Davis allowed nine hits, walked two and struck out 12 in six innings.
Troutman totaled three hits, drove in two, scored twice and stole a base in his four plate appearances, and Justesen followed up with a 2 for 4 effort with a stolen base, three runs scored and two RBIs.
Martin had two hits, a stolen base and an RBI, Trey Homer notched a hit, scored a run and drove in one run, and Winslow was 1 for 4 with a run scored and two RBIs.
Coming off consecutive wins over St. Paul, Oakland and Joseph to start the season, Sherman head coach Joe Justesen used his team’s final preseason game as a chance for his athletes to cement their roles on the roster.
He is happy with the progression his veteran team has shown thus far.
“We tried to put some new people in different positions to see what we can use for league,” Justesen said. “We were able to throw a lot of people who haven’t thrown for quite a while and I was pretty happy with what I saw. We threw strikes and made them hit the ball. They are a good hitting team. We just need to stay more consistent and keep focused for whole game and maybe we pull out a game like that.”
Sherman (3-1 overall) hosts Heppner (1-5) for a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
The Dalles junior varsity group heads to Bend to take on Mountain View High School for a game at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11.
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