By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DALLAS, Ore.– Dallas’ Eli Sledge knows how important the Summer is to improve on your craft. To take advantage of the downtime with no school and the shear opportunity to roll out to the fields and put in the work.
And this Summer is no different for the recent Dragon graduate. On Tuesday afternoon, Sledge was out on the baseball field where he just a few weeks ago, helped Dallas to their first playoff appearance since the 2017 season; putting in the work for his freshman year at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho with their baseball team.
“It’s major. It means a lot. A lot of kids can look over Summer. But Summer is my favorite time to play. It’s nice out, it’s sunny,” Sledge starts. “I’m planning on working really hard and developing more and working on getting ready for that next level. It’s going to be a big jump. This summer, get more comfortable catching higher velo. Blocking, catching, receiving. Also too I want to work on hitting higher with average and with more power.”
Sledge is entering his fourth season with the Post 20 Dirtbags, an American Legion squad, having first joined the squad in 2022 and has been contributing to a program that has reached the American Legion Play-In round the last three years. The squad are looking to make it back to the Field of Eight for the first time since 2019 when they finished third in the State.
“Just the last couple of years here have been great. I’ve taken massive leaps,” said Sledge.
The squad opened up the season this past weekend against the Portland Barbers, falling to the Barbers 12-0 and 14-4 in the doubleheader. The Dirtbags are off until June 21 when they’ll play a doubleheader with their Single-A team before hopping into Area-3 action on June 24 with the Wellcare Dodgers, formerly the Withnell Dodgers.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
