hursday afternoon, few people outside of Salem, Ore., knew who the Withnell Dodgers were. What a difference 48 hours makes.
The Oregon state champions came into the Class AA Northwest Regional Legion baseball tournament under the radar, but after their 11-4 win over Bellingham, Wash., in the tournament's second-round at Dehler Park on Saturday, the Dodgers are beginning to look like the favorites.
"With our record coming into the tournament, I can understand why teams may have thought we weren't very good," said Dodgers coach Jason Searle. "And quite frankly, our record is not an indication of how good of a team we are."
For the second straight game, the Dodgers got a complete game from their starting pitcher and used a balanced offensive attack as they advanced to Sunday's undefeated semifinal against against Waipahu, Hawaii.
Austin Hamilton tossed nine stellar innings, scattering seven hits and allowing four runs in picking up the victory. He threw 129 pitches, 82 of which went for strikes.
"I'm not an overpowering guy," admitted Hamilton, who will be playing college baseball for Linn-Benton (Albany, Ore.) as part of a dual enrollment program with Oregon State. "I was maybe a little nervous (the first two innings) but I slowed my breathing down and just told myself to trust the defense behind me."
After allowing a pair of runs in the second and another in the third inning, Hamilton settled down to retire 19 of the final 22 batters he faced as the Oregon state champions turned around an early one-run deficit.
Not only did Hamilton do it on the mound for Withnell, the 18-year old smacked a two-run double in the fourth giving his team the lead for good, 5-3.
"I just wanted to relax and get on base," Hamilton said of his go-ahead double. "I got a good pitch to hit and got a nice swing on it."
Withnell added three runs in the sixth - all with two outs - as they blew the game open, taking a 9-3 advantage.
"That inning was the difference in the game," said Searle. "And not only did we put the runs on the board, but Austin came out and got a shutdown inning almost every time we scored. Those shutdown innings are so critical at this stage."
Hamilton finished the day 3 for 5 at the plate with three RBIs.
Anthony Pitsch (2nd inning) and Bobby Funkhouser (9th) blasted solo home runs to pace Bellingham (41-12), which fell into a loser-out game with Boise, Idaho, on Saturday night.
"My focus is to just hit my spots," said Hamilton, who walked just one. "You don't want put anybody on base for free, you want to make them earn it so those homeruns don't hurt as bad on the scoreboard."
The Dodgers had six players tally two or more hits, led by Hamilton and David Mason, who both had three. Trais Koon added an RBI triple in the eighth inning and scored on a wild pitch making the score 11-3.
Withnell, which brought a less-than-impressive record of 25-22 into the tournament, has now won 10 of 11 postseason games and is just one win away from a date in Monday's championship game.
"My job is easy now," said Searle. "It's up to the kids to go out and have fun. We're going to need to come out with the same intensity and passion (Hawaii) has. (Hawaii) just plays so relaxed and have so much fun doing it."
"If we're viewed as the underdog, that's OK," he added with a smile. "But we're here and playing our best baseball of the year, so we'll see where that takes us."
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