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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 5, 2004 Playoff race tightens up By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland High's sprint down the home stretch of the Southern Oregon Conference baseball season began with a colossal stumble. Ashland high senior second baseman ben dodds (left) tries to apply the tag to Roseburg's Aaron Buxton during a Southern Oregon Conference game Tuesday at North Mountain Park. The Indians beat the Grizzlies, 10-3. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Roseburg scored eight runs in the first two innings and rode the rocket left arm of starting pitcher Blake Keitzman the rest of the way for an easy 10-3 victory over the Grizzlies Tuesday at North Mountain Park. Ashland (12-8, 8-8 SOC) fell into a three-way tie for third place in the conference standings, while Roseburg (8-13, 6-10) used its third straight win to stay within striking distance of the fourth and final playoff spot. The Grizzlies' roller coaster regular season continues Saturday against SOC co-leader North Medford (12-4 SOC), which rocked South Medford 14-3 Tuesday to earn a share of the top spot. Between now and then, Ashland will be trying to figure out why its talent isn't transferring into wins. "I said a bunch of statements earlier about how this is the best team and all that kind of stuff," Ashland coach Jason Robustelli said. "And then you use words like 'potential,' and I don't know what the definition of potential is, but I know that if you ain't using it then it's just left on the shelf. It's just there. These guys have the potential to be one of the best teams in the conference and the state, but are they going to prove it this year? I don't know. They prove it every day in practice. It's frustrating." What happened After the Indians used two hits and an Ashland fielding error to score three runs in the top of the first, the Grizzlies answered with two hits and two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. But Roseburg broke open the game in the second, when three straight singles with two outs gave the Indians an insurmountable 8-2 lead. Roseburg added two more in the sixth on a Dusty Brigham home run, then watched Keitzman and relief pitcher Ryan Robinson finish the job. Keitzman allowed six hits and struck out 10 - four looking - through six innings, and Robinson retired the side in order in a quick seventh. Micah Weston (3-3) started on the mound for Ashland and allowed seven of Roseburg's 10 hits to get tagged with the loss. He also hit two batters and walked another before being replaced by Aaron San Nicholas. The Grizzlies mounted their only serious comeback attempt in the sixth, but it seemed to lose most of its momentum when Chad Hegdahl was called out on a close play at the plate. That was only the first out of the inning, but it came on the heels of Rocky Reeser's single up the middle with two runners on base - Ashland's first clutch hit since the first inning. A single by Andrew Del Carlo and walk by Steve Jorgensen eventually gave Ashland its third run of the game, but San Nicholas struck out and Ben Dodds grounded out to leave the bases loaded. "I think it's because the stress is just piled up," Del Carlo said of Ashland's struggles in clutch situations. "We get out there, some of us aren't prepared, some of us don't think we're going to play. We're too jittery. We've got the potential, we've got everything, but when it comes to game time we just freeze." Roseburg scored the game's first run on a fielder's choice with the bases loaded in the first and added two more on Tanner Clagett's two-run single. Hegdahl's RBI single to right in the bottom of the first made it 3-1 and Jackson Rowe scored on a wild pitch moments later to further cut into Roseburg's lead. The Indians came right back with back-to-back-to-back RBI singles of their own by Kerry Hall, Clagett and Brandt Walker. Hall's hit drove in two, and ended up clearing the bases after a Grizzly throw to third went awry, Ashland's second and final error of the game. The Grizzlies have five games left in their bid to make the state playoffs for the fourth year in a row: two against North Medford, one against Eagle Point (May 11) and the last two at Grants Pass (May 15). Meanwhile, the fact that they're battling for the third and fourth spot instead of for first or second has become a source of frustration. "We practice like the best team in the state, we just can't win on Tuesday and Saturday; it's terrible," Dodds said. "I seriously believe that if a team showed up on a bus to play us on any day but Tuesday and Saturday, we wouldn't have lost a game yet. I don't know what's wrong, but we don't kick ground balls in practice, everybody hits the ball in practice. We show up here and it's different because we have pinstripes on." But with the final two playoff spots up for grabs and less than two weeks left in the regular season, the pressure on the Grizzlies to perform will only increase. "We can't lose any more baseball games or we won't go to the playoffs, and that would be tragic because we really should be one of the best teams in the conference and we're not playing like it," Dodds said. "Frankly, right now we don't deserve to go to the playoffs playing like this. You can't come out and give a team five outs in the first inning and six outs in the second inning and expect to win a baseball game. "It's ridiculous." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams