By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SCIO, Ore.–  The only thing that could literally put a damper on Opening Day in Oregon is a typical Oregon Spring Day.

Scio and Regis Baseball both managed to get three innings in of what would have been their opening day, playing on the turf field that the Loggers have with the rain holding off for the first two-and-a-half innings of the game before it created problems to postpone the game until a later date.

The Rams jumped on one of Scio’s top arms in Garrett Young, producing eight hits.  Something that they’ll hope they can reproduce again Tuesday when they travel to Roseburg to take on Umpqua Valley Christian for a full seven inning game.

“I’m really glad that we got the bats going today, I feel confident that we can do that same thing tomorrow knowing that we did it here,” Regis’ Luke Castillo said.   “I think for the most part that the bats will carry over tomorrow.  This game that we haven’t finished (against Scio), we didn’t finish the game so I think we’ll be hungry for more tomorrow.”

For the Loggers, there were some jitters in this first outing.  Battling some injuries but still returning a solid core from their 12-4 team that got a taste of playoffs thanks to the 3A Cumulative Week postseason as they’ll host Kennedy Tuesday before traveling to play in the Volcanoes Stadium Tournament on Friday.

“Last year was good.  We definitely got a strong team last year that took us really far in league and it kind of gave us a little airhead almost,” laughed Young.  “So I think once we get passed that stage, we’ll realize we’re the same team that we’ve always been and we’ll be really good.  Like today, we had a few errors, but once we get past it and ‘hey, this is what we did wrong’, it’ll all come together and get out of the first game jitters and we’ll realize this has been the same game we’ve played our whole lives.”

First pitch for the Trojans will be at 4:30pm for Scio.  The Rams, who will play against a fixture in the 2A/1A playoff scene in the Monarchs, will have first pitch at 6pm down in Roseburg.  Regis follow-up Tuesday’s game with Friday’s road trip to Country Christian before heading to Arizona for the Red Mountain Tourney in Mesa, Arizona.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald