The Roseburg Clint Newell Dr. Stewart’s struck for a quick run in the top of the first inning, and it looked like the Docs already had gotten a grip on that friend called “momentum.”
And just like that, the bats went silent.
The Portland Post 6 Barbers played a better round of base-hit Bingo Tuesday afternoon and earned a 3-1 victory to move on to the final day of the Oregon AAA American Legion Baseball state tournament at Champion Car Wash Field at Bill Gray Legion Stadium.
“We just couldn’t find the big knock,” Dr. Stewart’s head coach Jeremiah Robbins said after his team advanced to the Final Four of the AAA state tournament for the second consecutive year. “Two years in a row in the Final Four, that’s not bad.”
The Docs struck quick in the first, getting three consecutive singles, the third of which from Dominic Tatone scored Roseburg High School teammate Carson Dunn. It was then that the baseball gods pulled the emergency brake.
Post 6 — a collection of players from the Portland metropolitan area — tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning on a single by Jonah Hergert to score Tyler Christiansen. The Barbers added a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on RBI singles by Stanley Schoppe and Dakota Chun, and the Docs would not recover.
Roseburg left runners on second and third base in the top of the third inning, went down in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but as Barbers starting pitcher Austin Wolfe reached his limit of 105 pitches, a rally was mounting.
Wolfe entered the top of the seventh inning at 98 pitches, and struck out both Eli Jacobs and Austin Takahashi before giving way to reliever Jason Noffsinger. With two outs, Dunn grounded a single up the middle and took second base on a wild pitch, and Kade Johnson drew a walk to put runners on first and second.
Tatone was hit by a pitch for the umpteenth time this season to load the bases, but Daniel Withers grounded out to third to end the game.
Corbin went the distance for the Docs, striking out six and walking just one in what Robbins called the soon-to-be Roseburg junior’s best outing of the season.
His teammates agreed.
“You couldn’t have asked for more from Evan,” Tatone said. “We wanted better (from the season), but we learned a lot and made some growth.”
“It’s been a grind,” said Kade Johnson, a member of South Umpqua’s Class 3A state championship team and a nearly everyday starter for the Docs over the summer. “This time, it just went the wrong way.”
Johnson reached base all four times he approached the plate, slapping three singles and drawing a walk. The Barbers’ Christiansen (2-for-3 with a triple) was the only other player with multiple hits in the game.
Wolfe earned the pitching win, scattering five hits over 6 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts.
In Tuesday’s nightcap, the Area 4 Champion Medford Mustangs beat the Sherwood Lobos 14-4 in six innings to advance to Wednesday’s championship game.
Post 6 (33-8-1) will take on Medford (36-7) at 2 p.m. Friday and, with a win, the Barbers could force a 5 p.m. game for the state title. Medford is aiming to start a new streak of AAA state legion baseball titles after a run of seven in a row ended last July in a 6-2 loss to the then-Eugene Challengers at Champion Car Wash Field at Bill Gray Legion Stadium.
The Docs ended their season at 22-19 overall.
Dr. Stewart’s 100 000 0 — 1 6 0
Barbers 012 000 x — 3 9 1
Corbin and Burke; Wolfe, Noffsinger (7) and Murphy. W — Wolfe. L — Corbin. SV — Noffsinger. 3B — Christiansen (B).
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