One final stand

By the slimmest of margins, The Dalles 13-15 Babe Ruth All Stars surprised many by advancing to the Pacific Northwest Regional semifinals, but had their summer season end in a 5-4 loss to Union County Sunday at Quinton Street Ballpark in The Dalles.

That loss not only ended a year for a group of 13 players who had grown close over the past three years, it ended Babe Ruth baseball careers.

“It was a pretty great season for us. The team did pretty good. It was just a bad way to end it. We were so close, but yet so far,” said Tylan Webster. “Last year, we got put out pretty early in state. This year, we went a lot further and we got stronger the more we kept playing. I wish we had one more year because I really believe we could have pulled it off.”

The Dalles rallied from a 4-1 deficit with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Union County scored the eventual game-winning run in the top of the sixth on a sacrifice fly and reliever Caleb Lathrop retired the final seven batters he faced to help vault Union County into the championship game.

TD had a chance to score the lead run in the fifth frame, as Spencer Honald struck out, but reached base on a wild pitch.

With Kolbe Bales at the plate, Honald moved to second base and third on consecutive wild pitches, but Lathrop induced a groundout to end the threat.

Union County took advantage of TD’s missed opportunity in the top of the sixth, using a leadoff single by Jayce Leonard.

Leonard advanced to third base on a pair of wild pitches, and with one out, Logan Atkinson delivered an RBI sacrifice fly to centerfield to score Leonard and move Union ahead by a 5-4 margin.

TD was retired in order in the sixth and seventh innings on two strikeouts, two pop outs, a groundout and a flyout.

“They came out strong and started hitting,” said TD infielder Connor Uhalde. “They didn’t make many errors and they capitalized on the mistakes that we made. It was a good game overall and we played good too. That’s the way it goes.”

In all, The Dalles posted six hits, but stranded four runners, three in scoring position. TD was able to get its leadoff hitter on base twice in the game, in the second and fourth innings, the only two innings they scored runs.

“They were getting their leadoff hitters on, so they were always having pressure on us,” said TD head coach Jeff Justesen. “That was probably the difference in the game. We didn’t get our leadoff guys on all the time and we weren’t able to put pressure on them by running the bases with some stealing or playing small ball. We needed to play small ball late, but we weren’t getting guys on base to do it.”

Union County scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth inning on a steal of third by Gus Ramsden and a throwing error to make it, 4-1.

TD answered in the home half of the fourth inning on an RBI infield single and a two-run error.

Bales doubled to lead off the rally and William Justesen added a single to center field and advanced to second on the throw to third to put runners in scoring position.

Two outs later, Daniel Peters plated Bales on an RBI infield single to short.

With Jose Gonzalez at the plate, Peters stole second base, so TD had another chance to score runs.

Gonzalez hit a slow roller to first base on a play that would have ended the inning, but Atkinson had the ball slip between his legs into right field. William Justesen and Peters hustled home and the game was knotted at 4-apiece.

Union starter Derek Williams got out of the jam with an inning-ending force play at second base.

Williams tossed four innings of six-hit ball with two strikeouts and no walks for the no-decision.

Lathrop struck out three in his three innings to pick up the relief win.

Bales went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, and William Justesen, who had an RBI double in the second inning, added two hits in his three at-bats with a run scored and an RBI.

Uhalde and Peters had the only other hits.

The bottom of TD’s batting order managed just one hit in 15 at-bats with two strikeouts.

Bales had another complete-game performance and allowed five runs, three earned, on six hits, a walk and two hit batters. The southpaw struck out eight.

Chance Frederick had a hit, two RBIs and a run scored, Leonard, Justin Frederick and Wayne Rynearson combined for a hit and a run scored each and Atkinson went 1-for-2 with the game-winning RBI.

Although he was unable to play last season due to an injury, Peters noticed a growth on the team.

Leaders stood out, players progressed and the team grew increasingly closer in his time, he said.

Most importantly, TD silenced a few naysayers along the way.

“We were the host team in this tournament and nobody thought that we were going to go anywhere,” Peters said. “We did, and we proved a lot of people wrong. I feel good about that. I am proud of my teammates.”

In 14 preseason games, The Dalles All Stars had an 11-3 record and went 3-2 in regional play, with wins over Alberta, Canada, Glacier, Montana and Meridian, Idaho by a combined 43-13 margin.

Honald put forth a gutty pitching effort in an 8-7 win Friday over Glacier, who defeated Longview, Washington, 10-6 in the semifinals Sunday and used a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning to hold on for a 7-5 victory over Union County in the title matchup.

Glacier will represent the Pacific Northwest at the Babe Ruth World Series in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee from Aug. 13-20.

Coach Justesen had a good run with new assistants Marcus Denney and Dean Dollarhide, but as the page turns, he is still undecided about his coaching future.

He may have coached his final Babe Ruth game, but coach Justesen called it an honor and a privilege to be around a talented group of athletes and an even better group of young men.

“We talked today about winning with class and losing with class and holding our heads up. We made a good effort today. You cannot fault the effort,” Coach Justesen said. “They are good kids, they all get along and in the future, they are going to be good ball players and good kids. I thank the parents for giving me the opportunity to coach those guys.”