Legion Baseball: Dr. Stewart’s blows leads, drops twin bill at Medford
By Knight Jarecki
MEDFORD — Roseburg Dr. Stewart’s is still searching for its first win of the season after the Docs dropped both games of a doubleheader against the Medford Mustangs Wednesday afternoon at Jim McAbee Field.
The Docs lost 13-3 in Game 1 and fell to the Stangs (10-1, 3-1) 13-10 in the nightcap to give Roseburg (0-6, 0-2) its first two losses in Area 4 play.
“We did a lot of good things today but we just didn’t finish,” Docs coach Tim Sustaire said.
Roseburg had the lead late in each game and was competitive throughout the day, but three crooked-number innings cost the Docs a chance at their first win.
In Game 1, Cal Robbins hit his first home run of the season to give the Docs a 3-2 lead before Medford scored 11 unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to finish the game in five due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Thirty minutes later, the Docs came out firing, scoring three runs in each of their first two chances to take a 6-0 lead, but a five-run second inning allowed Medford to crawl its way back into the contest and eventually take the lead in the fourth at 7-6.
Roseburg responded strongly once again with a four-run fifth inning that gave the Stewies a three-run lead at 10-7 highlighted by Paxton Burke’s RBI triple. In the sixth, Medford had eight straight batters reach base safely with two outs to score six runs on seven hits, allowing the hosts to flip the deficit of three to a lead of three, which they held onto in the seventh to complete the sweep.
“The inability for us to get away from the bad inning is haunting us right now,” Sustaire said. “We had 24 hits today. We struck out six times today. We’ll take that any day of the week. We gotta find a way to get through the big number innings we’re giving teams right now. Sponsoring runs and giving teams extra outs.”
Medford was helped out by a combined five errors by the Docs — three in Game 1 and two in the nightcap. The errors resulted in 12 unearned runs across both games.
“Can’t do that against great teams. They make you pay, and that’s what should happen,” Sustaire said.
Despite the defensive struggles, Roseburg swung the bats well. Nearly every starter reached base safely across both games and the the Docs racked up two home runs, four extra base hits and a combined 13 RBIs in the twin bill.
“We had some great swings in some big moments that we needed and we had some great energy,” Sustaire said. “Now we need to just keep that energy and try to squash that big inning.”
Robbins went 3-for-3 with a home run and Fletcher Coleman was 2-for-2 in the opener. Paxton Burke, Logan Anderson, Daniel Withers, Jake Johnson and Dane St. Clair all had multi-hit games in Game 2, with Anderson and Johnson finishing with three hits each. Withers drove in half of the Docs 10 runs in Game 2 to finish with five RBIs, highlighted by a three-run homer in the second inning for his first big fly of the season.
The Docs head to Clackamas in search of their first win with tournament games scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Clackamas High School. The Docs will face Clackamas Premier Summer Friday at 3:30 p.m. and the Sockeyes AAA 18U team at 10 a.m. Saturday. Sunday’s game time is to be determined.
All games can be heard on the radio at 92.3 (FM) and 1490 (AM). Live video simulcast is available online at 541Radio.com.
First Game
Roseburg 100 11—3 9 3
Medford 200 0(11)—13 10 0
Johnson, Reigard (4), Sprague (5) and Robbins; Roundtree and Patterson. W — Roundtree. L — Reigard (0-2). 2B — Painter (M), Rosenthal 2 (M), Curtis (M), Sickler (M). 3B — Rosenthal (M). HR — Robbins (R).
Second Game
Roseburg 330 040 0 —10 15 2
Medford 051 106 x —13 14 2
Camp, Cheney (4) and Hellenthal; Malari, Lewis (3), McFall (6), Bloodworth (7) and Douglas. W — McFall. L — Cheney (0-1). S — Bloodworth, 2B — Anderson (R), Rosenthal (M), Douglas (M), Sickler (M), Patterson (M). 3B — Burke (R). HR — Withers (R).
