Sandy bounced by Royals in first round of OIBA playoffs

The conclusion to Sandy’s three-game series with Barlow might have been on Sunday, but even before then, coach Garet Luebbert could tell his team was running on fumes.

The Royals pushed the series to its rubber match, and in a must-win third game, the Pioneers couldn’t muster a fight.

A complete game, two-hit shutout from Barlow starting pitcher Cameron Hawkins told the tale of Sandy’s 7-0 loss Sunday at Barlow High School in the first round of the Oregon Independent Baseball Association tournament.

The Royals advanced to the round of 16, where they’ll face No. 1 seeded Jesuit 10 a.m. Tuesday at Hare Field.

“You saw our guys a little tired today — trying, but coming up a little bit short because of fatigue,” Luebbert said.

From the very first inning, Barlow ruled on the mound and at the plate.

Facing starting pitcher Justin Adams, who wasn’t in typical form, the Royals earned three hits in the first inning, including a two-run home run by Evan Jones, who helped his team build an early 3-0 lead.

“Obviously, our guy on the mound today, it wasn’t his best effort,” Luebbert said of Adams, who allowed five runs on seven hits in four innings. “He was a little fatigued as well.”

That inning only reinforced Luebbert’s pre-game suspicions, about his team’s fatigue.

They started in the series opener on Friday, when the Pioneers gasped and clawed their way to a 2-1 extra-innings win.

That would be the last sign of life from Sandy over the weekend.

Saturday was a debacle. In a must-win game two, Barlow unleashed for nine runs in the second inning. The 10-run rule was imposed in the fifth inning as Barlow walked away 14-2 victors.

After that blowout, did Luebbert have concerns about his team entering Sunday?

“I was a little worried,” he said. “But as worried as I was that it might be able to carry over, I am very confident in our ability to throw the baseball. No matter how well they swung the bat, I was a little surprised to see them hit Justin as well as they did.”

Barlow’s offense didn’t tapper off when Adams was pulled for Chase Thometz in the fifth inning. The first batter Thometz faced, Alex Richards, unloaded on a pitch that probably landed somewhere in Sandy. His solo home run extended the lead to 6-0.

The Royals amassed 16 hits but stranded 10 runners, which kept the game from becoming a rout.

The Pioneers, on the other hand, couldn’t get anything going against Hawkins. They failed to get a hit after the third inning and recorded two strikeouts in each of the first four innings, thwarting opportunities to climb back into the contest.

The two hits came on a Bryce Tilton single in the third inning and a double from Blake Robison in the second.

Hawkins struck out nine and walked five over the seven innings. His performance was the grand finale to a series dominated by Barlow’s pitching. The Royals allowed only four runs in 21 innings.

Luebbert says the struggles weren’t a result of his team pressing, as they tried to advance to their first sweet 16 in the three years since OIBA was constructed. It was fatigue.

The results, though, were second to the improvement he hoped to see this summer.

“We try not to pressure the kids too much in the games in the summertime,” Luebbert said. “It doesn’t mean the same. Summer’s instructional.

“We still go out and try to win every game, but some kids are going to play more than they might. We’re going to ask kids to do things we might not normally do just to make sure we’re a better team and better individually come spring.”