By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DALLAS, Ore.– There’s a lot of new faces out for the Dallas Baseball team this year, but they have that same tough kid mentality of going out and playing ball.
It was a rematch of last Spring’s 5A State Quarterfinal game with Summit, the season and home opener for the Dragons, and they hung around with the Storm despite new people in different positions on Wednesday night. Falling to the Storm 4-0 in the process as they begin what they’re hoping for is another run at the 5A State Playoffs come May.
“I thought we just picked up the ball and made the easy plays really well today. Ground balls have been tough for us in the past and we just made a lot of plays, double play early in the game,” starts Dallas Head Coach Keeton Luther. “We had some tough At-Bats, we got guys who got on base. I think we stranded about ten, maybe 11 runners. We had a lot of runners on base and early in the game, we had runners on second and third with one or no outs. We just missed that kind of clutch hit.”
Landen Peirce got the start on Opening Day for the Dragons, going five-and-two-third innings. He only struck out two in the outing, but the sophomore put the ball in the zone and allowed his defense to create some plays. Something that helped the young pitcher get into a groove against the Defending State Champions.
“It felt amazing and it allowed me to pitch to contact instead of stressing a little bit and ‘oh, maybe I need a weaker contact’, I was like, ‘I know this guy right here can make a play to get the ball there’,” said Peirce. “Last year we had those older guys that I was like, ‘I trust these guys’ and I feel the same exact way going into this year’.”
Brayden Thomas (catcher) and Taidyn Ryder (right field) are two freshmen who are stepping into some big Varsity roles this year. Griffin Brown at second base is the same as the squad begins the trek of learning and growing.
They held Summit scoreless until two came across home in the top half of the third inning to take a 2-0 lead. Dallas loaded up the bases in the bottom half of that inning with no outs, but that rally was quickly extinguished by the Storm with three straight strikeouts. The Dragons held Summit scoreless in the top half of the fourth and got runners on second and third, once again putting the pressure on the Storm to hold them off. Something that Summit did once again.
“Early in the season, it’s more of a pitcher’s game and getting used to hitting live at-bats and live pitches,” said Luther.
Summit got some insurance runs in the sixth, two actually, to extend their lead to 4-0 going into the bottom half of the inning. That 4-0 lead would hold true through the final out as the Storm spoiled Dallas’ season and home opener.
Griffin Brown, Landon Holbrook, Brayden Thomas all and a hit for Dallas, who will play host to Franklin on Thursday. Charlie Wiscovich, Mason Stout and Ryker Hartlaub drove in a run for the Storm, who will be heading to Arizona for the Coach Bob Invitational this upcoming week.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
