By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

DALLAS, Ore.—Defense was front-and-center for both the Corvallis and Dallas Friday afternoon as both teams closed out the first week of Mid-Willamette Conference play.

The lone run of the game, a Brook Dunkin RBI Double in the bottom half of the first inning was all the Dragons needed to win their third-straight game.  It was a slow start to the game for the Dallas bats, but they finished strongly in the batters box.   Something they’ll hope to rebound from after how league started entering Friday’s game.

“We adjusted well in the box in the end, but we should’ve made the adjustments sooner….We just need to see the ball earlier and make contact,” Jordan Creswell said.  “It was pitcher-against-pitchers.  (The defenses) backed up the pitchers well today.”

The Dragons Kadence Morrison struck out 16 in the win while Holland Jensen contributed another nine with their defenses combining in allowing seven hits total in the seven inning contest.

For Corvallis, it’s been a slow grind to this point. Following their 12-1 defeat to Silverton on Monday, they rebounded with a 3-1 win over Central on Wednesday and held the Dragons to one run.  Dallas scored 22 runs in their previous two games against West Albany and Silverton.

“We haven’t clicked yet in the Silverton game and then in the Central game, it really brought everything together and it clicked,” Corvallis’ Sydney Conklin said.  “You could tell that today.  We’re piecing it together and it feels great. 

“It feels great to finally get everything to click as a team.  We just got to keep putting in the work and have fun to keep building on this week.  We started a little bit slow at the start of the week and all we can do is progress.”

The Sparts host South Albany Wednesday while the Dragons travel to Central on Monday.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald