The Dalles baseball team salvaged a split Saturday against Hermiston, winning the first game 4-1 and losing the second game by a 5-0 mark in a Columbia River Conference doubleheader played at Bob Williams Field in The Dalles.
Riding a three-game winning streak entering Saturday’s opener, TD ace Colton Walker scattered five hits and one unearned run in seven innings with eight strikeouts and five walks to pick up the winning decision.
“We just had to come out energetic,” Walker said. “We had to stay up and stay positive. We knew what we were up against playing a good team in our first league game. Every game is going to be tough, so we knew that if we played within ourselves, we could have success.”
The Dalles gave their junior hurler all of the offensive support he needed in a four-run bottom of the first inning.
Colin Noonan reached after being hit by a pitch, and Gordy Harris and Eli Holeman reached on consecutive singles to load the bases for Payton Eaton.
On a 3-1 pitch, Eaton blasted a three-run triple to put the Riverhawks ahead 3-1.
With Eaton in scoring position and one out, Kristian Lucas cashed in Eaton with an RBI single to sell the TD lead to 4-1.
Over the next six innings, Walker allowed four hits and just two runners advanced as far as third base, as he stranded eight.
Eaton was 2 for 3 with a run scored and three RBIs, and Noonan had a hit, a walk, reached after being hit by a pitch, with one run scored.
Harris, Holeman and Lucas also had a hit apiece.
In the nightcap, Hermiston pitcher R.J. Robles walked two and gave up seven hits, but the southpaw stranded eight runners in his six innings of work in a 5-0 win for the split.
Hermiston scored an unearned run off Noonan in the first inning and added a single run in the third to lead 2-0.
With Noonan still in the game, the Bulldogs would scratch across two unearned runs in the top of the sixth to make it a 4-0 game.
Noonan allowed four runs, one earned, on three hits and six walks to go along with three strikeouts.
“We still have work to do. That’s the biggest thing,” said TD head coach J.R. Runyon. “I thought that we competed pretty well all day, but we made too many mistakes in the second game to get the win.”
Kellen Mathisen and Ross Kohl had two hits apiece to lead the Riverhawks, and Harris went 1 for 3 with a walk.
Noonan and Holeman each went 1 for 4 and Lucas went hitless, but reached on a walk.
TD had a chance in the bottom of the third inning with consecutive one-out hits by Kohl and Noonan, but a flyout and a strikeout ended the rally.
In the fourth inning, Lucas walked and Mathisen was safe on an infield single to give TD a chance against Robles, but the Hermiston lefty settled in and got an inning-ending strikeout to keep his team ahead.
In the fifth and TD down 2-0, Kohl reached on an error to set up Harris.
During Harris’ at-bat, Kohl swiped second base and advanced to third on a throwing error, but after an umpire conference, Harris was ruled out on catcher’s interference and Kohl had to return to first base.
With one out, Harris was issued a walk to put two runners on. Robles battled Holeman in an 11-pitch at-bat. Both Harris and Kohl moved to scoring position on a wild pitch, while Holeman was at the plate.
But Robles induced a popup to third base for the second out and then struck out Eaton on a 3-2 fastball to end the threat.
Kohl and Harris reached on singles to start the bottom of the seventh inning against Hermiston reliever Chase Root, but Holeman bounced into a 6-4-3 double play to end the rally.
Given all of these opportunities, Walker knows the Riverhawks have to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.
He did notice a lapse in the second game, however.
“We can’t be complacent. We cannot stop being up,” he said of the second game. “We just stayed flat and started going downhill. We got complacent thinking we were better than the other team. We have to know that it can go either way any day, but if we come out strong and finish strong, we give ourselves a chance.”
With a chance to get back to its winning ways, The Dalles took a lot from the second-game loss.
Kohl is hopeful that his team can finish stronger the rest of the way.
“Today taught us about bouncing back from adversity,” Kohl said. “We can beat these guys on any given day. We just need to put good at-bats together, one-through-nine. We showed that by playing with these guys, we can play with anybody.”
TD (7-8 overall, 1-1 league) was in Hermiston (8-5, 1-1) today. At noon Saturday, they head to Pendleton (8-10, 1-1).
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.