RBI’s Pitcher Chase Staup (44) throws a pitch during a baseball tournament at Winlock High School.
RBI’s Catcher Todd (55) Tabor makes an out during a baseball tournament at Winlock High School.
Rural Baseball Inc. Coach Jordan Nailon looks on during a tournament played at Winlock High School.
RBI’s Kyuss Mano (31) slides safe into home plate Thursday afternoon during a baseball tournament at Winlock High School.
RURAL: Jesse Towns Scored From Third Base on a Wild Throw in the Bottom of the Seventh Inning to Give the Dirtbags Victory
WINLOCK — With the sun fading fast and no stadium lights, Rural Baseball Inc. entered the bottom of the seventh and final inning trailing Black Hills 9-6. The Dirtbags didn’t quite need a miracle, but they needed something. That something happened.
With one out and Jack Boothe and Luke Roth on second and third, Jackson Hull destroyed a fastball that cleared the centerfielder’s head for a two-run triple. Moments later, Jesse Towns stepped to the plate and slapped an RBI single to left center that scored Hull from third to tie it up at 9-9.
Then came the dagger.
Ben Woodrum fought off multiple foul balls before connecting on an infield single with a throwing error to first base that allowed Towns to score from third for the 10-9 win in the Dirtbags’ opening game of the Dave Horzel Haymaker Tournament Thursday night in Winlock.
“There was something in the air all day long,” Rural Baseball coach Jordan Nailon said. “You could just feel it. It was like a storm building up all day with energy in the air, and you knew a lightning bolt was going to crash at some point.”
It was an impressive comeback for a Dirtbags squad that squandered an early 3-1 lead by digging themselves into an 8-3 hole with a combined seven-run third and fourth innings from Black Hills.
Rural Baseball got on the board first when Woodrum reached on a fielder’s choice that scored second baseman Chase Staup from third to make it 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Black Hills tied it up in the top of the second before Boothe and Kyuss Mano each scored in the bottom of the second; Boothe on Hull’s RBI groundout and Mano on a wild pitch.
Momentum quickly turned against the Dirtbags in the third and fourth.
Staup, the Dirtbags’ starting righty, allowed three consecutive singles before a bases-loaded walk brought in one run. An RBI single and another drawn walk drove in two more runs as Black Hills took its first lead of the game at 4-3.
The fourth inning was even more disastrous for the Dirtbags. Staup allowed two consecutive RBI singles before the lefty Woodrum came in for relief. Staup finished with six hits, five earned runs, five walks and one strikeout through 3 ½ innings.
“Staup gave us a pretty good start, it just wasn’t his day,” Nailon said. “Couple plays didn’t go the right way, some seeing-eye singles. I think (Black Hills) hit two balls out of the infield all day and scored nine runs.”
Black Hills scored another on a dropped third strike before Woodrum drew a groundout to end the inning. But the damage was done and the Dirtbags were in trouble trailing 8-3.
Woodrum kept Black Hills off-kilter and helped turn the tide, tossing 1 ⅔ innings of scoreless, no-hit ball. He finished with three walks, zero earned runs and zero hits.
“They had us on the ropes early,” Nailon said. “But Woodrum came in, threw a couple good innings and stopped the momentum.”
Rural Baseball drew closer when Hull knocked in Roth with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth. Roth took over in relief in the sixth and threw a 1-2-3 inning, highlighted by Woodrum’s diving catch in centerfield.
Roth and Hull scored again in the sixth with Staup’s two-run fielder’s choice to bring the Dirtbags within two, trailing 8-6. Black Hills tacked on its last run of the evening with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh to hold a three-run advantage going into the Dirtbags’ final shot at victory.
Boothe led off the inning with a single, then stole second. Two batters later, Roth walked, which set up Hull’s two-run blast of a triple, followed by Towns’ RBI single that tied it up. Woodrum’s infield single that forced an errant throw to first by Black Hills gave Towns the game-winning run as the DIrtbags stormed the field and hounded Towns.
“I just couldn’t be prouder for these guys coming out,” Nailon said. “Easy to give up right there and they just absolutely did not. Everybody figured out their role and embraced what they were doing. That’s been our focus all year long. Whatever it is, we have to be the best on the field at all the little things. We don’t win that game if we don’t bring our ‘A’ effort in every single inning.”
Roth pitched the final two innings, allowing one earned run and one hit while striking out one. Hull went 2-for-4 with four RBIs, two runs and a triple. Staup went 2-for-4 from the plate with two RBIs, a run and a walk. Towns went 2-for-3 with an RBI, two walks and the game-winning run.
“Pretty good show with the sticks, especially swinging wood bats,” Nailon said.
It was a rewarding victory for Nailon and the Dirtbags, playing in their home tournament that’s named after the creator of Rural Baseball Inc., Dave Orzel.
“This tournament means everything in the world to me,” Nailon said. “Dave Orzel taught me everything I know about baseball and playing hard.”
Orzel, who coached baseball at Kalama and Castle Rock, along with Joe Bair, the head coach of Lower Columbia baseball, founded Rural Baseball Inc. back in 2014. Orzel sadly passed away in January 2014, just months before the inaugural season for the Dirtbags.
“This was Dave’s idea,” Nailon said. “He’s all about small-town guys coming together, forming like Voltron and taking on whoever. This was Orzel’s last hurrah getting this going. Every day we come out, we’re playing to keep his memory, his dream, everything he put his last energies into. We’re trying to keep that momentum going.”
Rural Baseball advances to day two of the double-elimination tournament and will face Woodland at 6 p.m. on Friday. The tourney might be the final games for Rural Baseball, and all prep baseball teams in the state as Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday a restriction on public gatherings for phase three counties, which includes Lewis County, dropping the number of people allowed from 50 to 10.
