By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  Regis battled through the hail, the rain, the wind and the occasional sun break Friday in their doubleheader sweep against Monroe at Stayton High School.  Completing the three-game 2A/1A Special District 3 sweep of the Dragons in the process in their 8-5 and 15-0 wins at home.

“Anytime that you’re faced with this kind of adversity and to be able to come out on top like that , it shows to us that we’re able to compete even if we got all of this stuff on our minds.  That confidence boost going into the Roseburg tournament will be great.  We’re going to be faced with some tough competition down there with Knappa, Bandon and Dayton…I think we’re in a good spot right now  and we’re excited to play,” Kollin Schumacher said.

The junior outfielder came out firing, leading an Regis offensive assault in Game 2 of the doubleheader with 5RBI’s on two hits as the Rams bats backed up Max Eaton in his no-hit, seven-strikeout, complete game in the five-inning game.  Both Schumacher and Eaton point to the talk in-between Games 1 and 2 that sparked them up for the latter game knowing that Monroe had just made things hairy at the end of the first game thanks in part to a three-run seventh inning.

“We had a pretty good talk in between games about how we got to better our approaches at the plate and put balls in play because that’s how we score runs,” Eaton said, who was a single walk away from a perfect game.  “I think that clicked with all of the guys and we shortened up the approach, have a good mentality to the plate and good things will happen.”

And good things did happen.  They scored eight runs in the bottom half of the inning after turning a quick three-up and down inning.  Monroe kept the Rams in check for the second and third innings with Asher Straud on the hill.  The freshman Dragons pitcher had three total strikeouts in three-and-two-third-innings and kept Regis on their heels until the fourth inning where the Rams began to time out the pitcher in the elements.

In that inning, Regis plated seven more runs to really put an exclamation point to the series win and doubleheader sweep as Eaton’s defense didn’t slow down a bit when they went out there in the top half of the fifth inning.  

Haden Gough and Schumacher each at two hits apiece in that second game, Eaton and Logan Kirsch each drove in 2RBI’s in that latter game as well as Regis heads to Legion Field in Roseburg on Monday to play Bandon/Pacific at 10am.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald