Dominic Tatone

CLACKAMAS — Dominic Tatone hit a solo home run and Austin Takahashi pitched a solid six innings, but the Roseburg High School baseball team just didn’t have enough to get past the Clackamas Cavaliers in a 3-2 Class 6A playoff loss on Wednesday.

With the second-round exit, Roseburg finished the season with an 18-9 overall record. No. 7 Clackamas moves on to host No. 18 Lake Oswego, which upset No. 2 Jesuit 5-1 on Wednesday.

A familiar struggle plagued the Indians against the Cavaliers, much like it did all season. Roseburg left nine men on base and went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, missing out on numerous scoring chances in a game that was never separated by more than one run.

“That’s obviously a common theme, something we addressed daily at practice and the kids worked tremendously hard at trying to improve on that, but unfortunately that was the difference in the game,” Roseburg coach Troy Thompson said.

Clackamas (25-4) took a 1-0 lead off of Takahashi in the second inning on a controversial play at the plate. With runners at second and third and only one out, Roseburg pulled the infield in to try and keep the Cavaliers from scoring.

Caden Stevens hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Sebastian Watson, who quickly threw to plate in an attempt to cut down the Clackamas runner.

Austin Takahashi

Roseburg catcher Knox Hubbard laid the tag on Ashton MacClanathan, but the home plate umpire ruled that McClanathan avoided the tag long enough to touch home plate and give Clackamas the lead.

Roseburg was undeterred and rallied back in the fourth inning. Tatone’s solo homer started the inning and tied the score. It was the second round-tripper of the season for the senior, who finished 2-for-3 on the day.

Nathan Wayman followed Tatone with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Hubbard. An errant pickoff throw to first base brought Wayman home and gave Roseburg a 2-1 advantage.

The lead didn’t last long. McClanathan had his second hit of the game to lead off the home half of the fourth and two batters later Garrett Strube squeaked a pop fly over the left field fence to put the Cavaliers back in front 3-2.

Both starting pitchers went six innings in the contest. Takahashi took only his second loss of the year, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out five and walking two. Junior Matthew Tacheny earned the win, surrendering just three hits and two runs while walking four, striking out four and hitting two batters.

Stevens, a senior, picked up the save, facing four batters in the seventh and finishing the game with a strikeout.

“Gutty performance by Austin,” Thompson said. “He did a great job, handled a great lineup very well. He gave us a chance to be there at the end and unfortunately it just didn’t happen for us tonight.”

Roseburg will graduate nine seniors from this spring’s roster that finished second in the Southwest Conference. Moving on from the program are Carson Dunn, Watson, Tatone, Hubbard, Logan Klopfenstein, Griffin Zeimet, Dawson Gillespie, Silas Kincaid and Wayman.

“We appreciate all their hard work and effort and time commitment,” Thompson said. “They didn’t have it easy these last couple of years, with the COVID year as sophomores and the shortened season last year. And then to come out for the regular season this year, to put forth the effort they did and the time that they put in, I really appreciate it from all of my seniors and look forward to seeing them as they continue their journey.”


Roseburg;000;200;0;—;2;4;0

Clackamas;010;200;X;—;3;6;3

Takahashi and Hubbard; Tacheny, Stevens (7) and Wilson. W — Tacheny. L — Takahashi (7-2). SV — Stevens. 2B — Tatone (R), Wayman (R). HR — Tatone (R), Strube (C).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.
You need to agree with the terms to proceed