SANDY, OR – An early lead didn’t last for the Roseburg Doc Stewart’s as Advanced Metals of Gresham rallied and held on late for an 8-6 win on Saturday, which sent Gresham to the state tournament and ended the season for the Doc’s.

The Doc’s jumped ahead in the first inning with a two-out rally. Chris Stone hit a double to left-centerfield to get the action started and Will Reddekopp followed with a double to score Stone for a 1-0 lead. Cam Lierman drew a walk to put Doc’s runners on first and second base and Dustin Eakin loaded the bases by getting hit by a pitch. Treven Jacks stretched the Doc’s lead to 3-0 with a single before the inning came to an end.

That’s all the scoring the Doc’s could manage for the first five innings. Meanwhile, Advanced Metals got on the board in the third inning and continued scoring for the next three innings, building a 8-3 advantage.

Gresham tied the game in the third inning with three runs off of Doc’s starter Will Shaw. Advanced Metals got back-to-back doubles to drive in the first two runs and a single brought home a third. Gresham took a 5-3 lead in the fourth on a throwing error by Shaw and a groundout by Travis Copher.

Shaw was lifted from the game in the fourth inning and Dalton McHugill took over. McHugill surrendered just one hit in his time on the mound, a single to lead off the fifth. After walking the next batter, McHugill was relieved by Zack Mandera, but the two runners eventually scored, going against McHugill’s total.

Advanced Metals added its final run in the sixth inning. Brock Emory led off the inning with a single to left field and later scored on an infield single by Austin Carson.

The Doc’s closed the gap in the bottom of the sixth inning when Chris Stone hit his first home run of the season, driving in three runs to make the score 8-6. That was as close as the Doc’s rally would get, as they managed to get just one more runner on base the rest of the game.

The season came to and end for the Doc’s in a similar fashion to most of the year. The team struggled to string together hits and score runners. The Doc’s left 11 runners on base, eight of which were in scoring position. Twice in the game the Doc’s failed to score a run despite getting a runner into scoring position with less than two outs.

Advanced Metals moves on to the state tournament in Salem, where the team will take on the Corvallis Gerding Builders Marketmen on Wednesday.

For a second consecutive season the Doc Stewart’s ended the year with a loss in a Super Regional series. Last year the Doc’s lost in two games against Corvallis. The Doc’s have now missed the state tournament for two straight years.

NOTE: The game wasn’t played without a bit of controversy. The Doc’s had runners on first and second with one out in the third inning when Treven Jacks hit a ball that dribbled just in front of the plate. The ball was fielded and thrown to first, but hit Jacks in the back and rolled away, apparently allowing the Doc’s to score Will Reddekopp from second.

Yet, the home umpire ruled that Jacks had run out of the base path to interfere with the throw to first. Jacks was ruled out and the runners were sent back to first and second with no runs scored. Coach Scott Shaver argued the call, but did not get the ruling overturned. He said after the game that the ruling was a turning point in the game.

 SCORES BY INN. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 – R H E
GRESHAM            0 0 3 2 2 1 0 0 0 – 8 14 0
ROSEBURG          3 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 – 6 8 2
W: Michael Norris
L: Will Shaw (3-3)
S: Austin Carson