By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
DAYTON, Ore.–It wasn’t the Dayton softball team’s best day at the ballpark, but it may have served a valuable purpose ahead of its 3A Special District 3 game Monday against Yamhill-Carlton.
The Pirates played Scappoose on Friday afternoon. And a sluggish start against a hot hitting team like Scappoose put Dayton in a tough 5-0 hole in a hurry going into the third inning. Six of Scappoose’s 11 hits came in those first two innings before Dayton found some rhythm defensively starting in the third inning.
“It’s a learning experience. We just got to clean things up. They know what they got to do and we got to come back and play with more energy, play a little faster and we’ll be fine,” starts Head Coach Frank Baumholtz. “We got to clean up a few things. Just our approach, taking care of the ball defensively. All-in-all I told them that they had to control the things you can control and the things that are out of your control, don’t worry about those things.”
Over the course of the next five innings, it was a pretty even game with the advantage being towards Scappoose 3-2 down the stretch. The defense found a little more consistency, as did their offense. The game was a good reminder to play cleaner, sure, but it was also a good test to challenge their character and see how they will respond to adversity when it’s presented.
“It shows their character. We’re not a team that’s just going to fold when things happen, so it was good to see that. We want to play a little faster, play a little more aggressive in all phases of the game and we’ll be fine,” said Baumholtz.
Charly Upmeyer struck out four batters in four innings of work. Hayden Bell and Upmeyer each drove in a run. Lou Auvil and Bell each had two hits in the defeat as the Pirates will host Yamhill-Carlton at 5pm on Monday at Dayton High School.
