The high school baseball postseason arrives on Monday, and for the Roseburg Indians it’s a perfect opportunity to turn the page on a disappointing end to the regular season.
“It’s a different season now,” Roseburg head coach Troy Thompson said. “It’s an exciting part of the baseball season.”
Fourteenth-seeded Roseburg (17-9) went 1-5 in the final two weeks of the regular season and finished fourth in the Southwest Conference. The Indians managed to hang on to a home playoff game for the Class 6A playoffs thanks to a much more dominant first half.
Thompson and his coaching staff have had the last week to work with the team while waiting to find out who their first round opponent will be.
“A lot of real positives this week at practice. We feel good about where we’re at. I think we’re excited about the opportunity to play in the playoffs,” Thompson said.
Westview (12-15) will be Roseburg’s first opponent on Monday. First pitch is set for 4:30 p.m. at Bill Gray Legion Stadium at Champion Car Wash Field.
The No. 19 Wildcats of Beaverton finished fourth in the Metro League thanks to a strong finish, winning six of their last seven.
“We’ve played a lot of really good teams and we’ve been able to take a lot of those lessons here in the last two-three weeks to change the outlook of the season,” Westview head coach Matt Bailie said. “I keep telling the guys we got hot at the right time.”
Roseburg will hope to return to form and playing at home is a good place to do so. The Indians went 9-4 at home this year and haven’t lost a home playoff game since the 2013 semifinals.
“I think its a huge thing for us to play at home,” Thompson said. “Being able to play at home obviously affords you time to continue to practice at your home field and the opportunity to play at your home field.”
But for the visitors, Bailie doesn’t feel the bus ride will make much of an impact on his team.
“They’re a pretty loose group,” Bailie said. Some of the team has played in Roseburg as a part of American Legion baseball and many players have gone out of state for weekend tournaments. “They’re used to kind of walking into stadiums and atmospheres that most high school kids aren’t used to.”
On paper, the first-round tilt looks to put Roseburg’s pitching against Westview’s hitting.
Roseburg’s pitching has helped carry it through the season and has made up for inconsistent hitting at the plate. The team has a combined 2.25 earned run average.
Evan Corbin, Austin Takahashi and Jake Johnson have eaten up the bulk of the innings this season. They’ve combined for 145 2/3 of the 180 1/3 innings thrown by Roseburg’s staff. The trio has gone seven or more innings in 14 games this year.
The Wildcats have been solid in the batter’s box. Westview is hitting .307 as a team, led by Cole Katayama-Stall (.420) and Gunnar Pedersen (.377). Pedersen has been the mainstay at the top of the order for Bailie and Katayama-Stall bats third.
Westview has needed the offense because its pitching this season hasn’t had a lot of success keeping opponents in check. Teams have scored an average of 7.8 runs against the Wildcats.
That could be a good sign for Roseburg, which averaged 4.4 runs a game during the regular season.
Noah Fisk has worked his way into being a mainstay in the lineup, hitting 13-for-36 in 15 games this season. His batting average of .361 leads the team for players with more than 35 at-bats.
Takahashi, Corbin, Eli Jacobs and Brooks Avery have also been consistent contributors at the plate.
Avery and Corbin lead the team with 13 RBIs each. Jacobs leads the team in runs scored (22) and stolen bases (16). Takahashi leads the team in extra base hits (five). They’re all hitting above .260 for the season.
This will be the fourth meeting between Roseburg and Westview in the last decade. The Indians lost games on the road against Westview at Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro during the 2015 and ‘17 seasons.
Roseburg picked up a 3-2 win over Westview near the end of the 2018 regular season, but the Wildcats would eventually go on to win the state championship that year.
