Pitching against an offense that that scored five or more runs in five of its nine games, The Dalles senior Bailey Ortega needed to be on his top game.
He was and then some.
Ortega scattered three hits and struck out three, and was supported by an errorless defense that turned two double plays and added several sterling plays in an 8-1 victory over La Salle Prep Thursday at Bob Williams Field in The Dalles.
It was the second consecutive quality start by the right-hander, who credits changing his arm slot and working seamlessly with his catcher Kellen Mathisen as the reasons for his success on the mound.
“I was throwing three-quarters, but now I am going more over-the-top and it is keeping me around the strike zone more consistently,” Ortega said. “My curveball worked really well and Kellen knew that. We threw in some change-ups as well, even though it wasn’t very good today. But, I focused more on my fastball and curveball and I was able to keep my pitches around the plate a lot more to keep them off-balanced.”
Ortega did walk five La Salle batters and walked a tightrope in a few of the innings, but found ways to get out of jams. La Salle stranded eight runners total, five in scoring position.
In the top of the fifth inning, with the Riverhawks leading 6-1, the Eagles had the first two runners reach on a single and a walk.
After a visit from pitching coach Chris Loyd, Ortega retired the next batter on a 6-4-3 double play, however, La Salle still had a runner at third base, but with two outs.
Ortega then walked the next two batters to load the bases, and he faced a 3-1 count on the No. 5 hitter, Jason Burns.
On the next pitch, Burns laced a hard liner to centerfield, but TD senior Colin Noonan was there to make the catch to end the threat.
TD added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Johnny Miller that plated Noonan, who led off with an infield single.
Staked to the six-run lead, Ortega found himself in another jam in the top of the sixth after two straight walks.
The next batter, Bryce Falk, hit a low liner to shallow centerfield, but Noonan was there for the sliding catch.
The senior then fired the ball to second base to complete the double play.
The next batter, Matt Duarte, then hit a looper behind shortstop in shallow left field, but Miller avoided contact with left fielder Cash Mathewson and made an acrobatic catch to end the inning.
“My defense came through and made some great plays, like the two double plays and a great snow cone catch by John (Miller) out there in shallow left,” Ortega said. “I am happy to be backed up by my teammates. It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that because if I miss a pitch here or there, I know they can make the plays behind me.”
TD gave Ortega all of the offensive support he needed in the bottom of the second inning, as they scored six runs on five hits and four walks.
Dawson Hoffman had an RBI single to score Boston Bate, Miller was issued a bases-loaded walk, Colton Walker drove in Hoffman and Noonan with a two-run single and Mathisen capped the frame with another two-run single to right field, plating both Miller and Walker to make it a 6-1 score.
All told, the Riverhawks notched seven hits, received nine walks and had two batters hit by pitches.
Walker and Mathisen had two hits and two RBIs apiece, and the trio of Bate, Daniel Peters and Hoffman had a hit each.
Miller scored a run and drove in two, Bate and Noonan each scored twice, and Hoffman added a run and an RBI to pace an offense that has scored 31 runs in five home games.
“The swings have always been there,” said TD head coach J.R. Runyon. “It is just their approaches at the plate. In different games, they get behind in the count and it is hard to hit when you are behind in a count, so we have been stressing attacking early. If you get a fastball early in the count that you can handle, get a good swing and get an aggressive hack on it. Guys were doing that today and it made all of the difference in the world.”
Through the first eight games of the season, the Riverhawks have enjoyed various levels of success, but have yet to play a consistent brand of baseball.
Noonan, a senior, still believes in the process, and said he was happy to see all facets of the game executed in Thursday’s triumph.
“We had great pitching, great defense and great offense. When you have everything going together like it was, you will see our team win more games,” Noonan said. “Today showed us what we can do. It shows us that we can hit, field and pitch and do all of the fundamental things it takes to be a successful team down the road. We know that if we can play like we did today, we can carry on through league and be that tough team nobody wants to play.”
TD (3-5 overall) traveled to play No. 11-ranked Redmond (4-1) today for a single game.
After that, the Riverhawks host West Albany (3-2) at 4 p.m. next Tuesday.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.