Astoria's 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars dropped to 1-1 in pool play at the North Oregon State Tournament with a 5-1 loss to Snake River Valley Thursday at Quinton Street Ballpark in The Dalles.
Astoria faced one of two other teams that head coach Melton LuCore expects to contend for the title on Sunday. Unfortunately, some miscues in the field and on the basepaths spelled the difference in a matchup of fairly even teams.
The Treasure Valley (Oregon-Idaho border region near Ontario) All-Stars put two runs on the board in the first inning off Astoria starting pitcher Jeremy Poyer, with only one of the runs earned.
Astoria put a runner on base in the bottom of the inning that was promptly picked off.
In the third inning, Poyer's defense let down allowing three more unearned runs for a 5-0 Snake River Valley lead.
"We should have won it 2-1," said a frustrated LuCore. "We dropped an infield fly, misplayd a weak-hit ball to third with the bases loaded...that gave them four runs.
"Every time we got something going we’d shoot ourselves in the foot."
Poyer threw a solid four innings, allowing four hits and all five runs before Will Samp threw three innings of shutdown relief, limiting Snake River Valley to one hit and no runs.
"He threw real well," said LuCore of Samp, who also pitched two scoreless innings in Astoria's 14-1 victory over Pendleton Americans on Wednesady. "He kept them off balance."
When Snake River did get a runner on base in the final innings, Astoria's settled defense took care of business, turning two double plays behind Samp.
"Once we get the jitters out and start plyaing baseball, I don’t see anyone beating us," LuCore confidently stated. Astoria will also be bolstered by the return of starting shortstop and number three hitter Kyle Kelly, who missed the first two games of the tournament attending a church camp.
Astoria tallied its only run of the game in the sixth inning with a two-out rally. Brendan Greenfield reached on a base hit, advanced on a Kyle LuCore base on balls and scored on Keelin Cuifici's single, the sixth hit of the tournament for the Astoria native to lead the squad.
Astoria was unable to keep the rally going as LuCore, trying to sneak an extra base when the throw to the infield evaded the cutoff man, was gunned down at the plate for the final out of the inning.
Astoria had just four hits in the seven inning game after collecting 12 hits in Wednesday's rout over Pendleton Nationals. LuCore expects to face Tualatin Hills if they make it to Sunday's final four, with a possible rematch against Snake River Valley in the offing.
"They were a good, solid squad," said LuCore of the Ontario-based team, "but, we should have beat them. Hopefully the kids come out thinking we can play with anybody."
Astoria wraps up pool play on Friday against Hermiston. Saturday's games are loser out to determine Sunday's final four matchups. The tournament site will switch to Kramer Field in The Dalles on Sunday.
