Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Odessa felled by DeSales in elim. game
Odessa senior Zach Claassen swats a single past the DeSales infield to get the Tiger offense started at the District 7/9 1B Tournament in Ritzville Saturday, May 11.
RITZVILLE - For the first two innings, it seemed like a bit of small ball on offense and some solid defense behind Bo Walter might allow the Odessa baseball team to fight for an upset against the favored DeSales Irish.
But a nightmarish third inning for the Tigers unraveled the game, leading to a 17-1 route by the eventually state-bound Irish in the District 7/9 1B Tournament Saturday, May 11.
The loss ended Odessa's season in the District tournament for the second straight season. It was the third straight season a District 9 team knocked the Tigers out, as last year Sunnyside Christian topped Odessa in the District tourney while the Irish were victorious in the 2022 State quarterfinals.
The Tigers were first on the board in the top of the second inning when Dakota Steward singled, stole second, advanced to third on a Miller Stout single and scored on a balk.
DeSales tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the frame after a hard-hit ball finally found a gap, but Walter's first strikeout limited the damage.
The bottom of the third inning was the Tigers' bane. Odessa's defense, which had been tremendous for two innings, committed four errors to allow six Irish runs.
Walter then left the game with an elbow injury and was replaced by Aiden Villane, who only allowed one more run in the inning to make it 8-1.
That lead ballooned to 17-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning. A scoreless fifth inning ended the game by mercy rule.
DeSales would go on to defeat Sunnyside Christian 10-0 Saturday to advance to state. The Irish dominated Moses Lake Christian 24-3 in the opening round of state Tuesday, May 14 and are now in the quarterfinals against Crosspoint.
Odessa came into Saturday's game as the third seed from District 7 after a 13-7 regular season and finished the season 13-8.
"The 2024 season was full of growing and improvement from the team and it had its moments of scratching your head and saying, 'how did this happen?'" Odessa head coach Joe Schlomer said. "We had a decent season. We didn't finish the way we wanted to but overall, we were a good team with goals to be a great team next year."
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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