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Tornado blow by Thurston After shedding the rust formed following a week and a half layoff, the seventh-ranked North Medford baseball team returned to form. It took two innings to get things going for the Black Tornado, but after that it was all downhill for Thurston as the Southern Oregon Conference champions opened their run in the Class 4A state tournament with a resounding 14-1 win over the Colts at Miles Field. North Medford advances to face West Linn, a 9-4 winner over Beaverton, on Friday in a second round playoff game. "We started out slow after the long break," North first baseman Colby Gonzales said of his team's layoff after the end of the regular season. "But we finally got things going." Sophomore left-handed pitcher Brent Kircher held down the fort during North's two-inning offensive slumber, keeping Thurston at bay for much of the game. "Brent (Kircher) came out really strong," said North coach Brett Wolfe. "Our pitching program is pretty thorough so he was getting work during our time off. "Once we had a chance to open things up things really started rolling for us." The Black Tornado broke the game open in the third with a two-out single by Josh Bottjer. Bottjer stole second and came around to score following a base hit by Ken Halpin, who scored two batters later on an error. North tacked on three more runs on RBI singles by Dan Bruce and Phil Ouellette. After posting four more runs in the fourth, the Black Tornado sealed the deal in the sixth. Halpin started things off with a solo blast, his fifth of the season, and Gonzales followed with a walk. Charlie Jensen trickled a bloop single to put runners on first and second and set up another RBI single by Bruce. Ouellette capped his 3-for-4 day with a triple, scoring the final two runs for North. Thurston pushed one run across in its half of the sixth on an RBI sacrifice fly. Bruce and Halpin had two hits and three RBIs apiece, while Bottjer also had two hits for the Black Tornado. Cory Dixon and Matt Estes led the Colts with two hits apiece. Kircher, who improved to 9-2 on the season, struck out two and gave up one walk in his complete-game, eight-hit performance. Thurston ...........................000 001 0 -- 1 8 3 North Medford ...................005 405 x -- 14 13 0 Dixon, Rascon (3), Koozer (4), Estes (6) and Wilson; Kircher and Halpin. W -- Kircher (9-2). L -- Dixon. 2B -- NM: Ouellette. 3B -- NM: Ouellette. HR -- NM: Halpin (5). Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA