>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

SLIDING HOME: The Bobcats’ Cody Billman (2-for-3, two doubles, RBI) slides into home in the second inning Tuesday. - The Observer/BRUCE MASON

It was the bottom of the sixth. Tie game. And here was Bobcats freshman Austin Woodward, leading off, holding his wooden bat, keeping that front foot closed.

And here came the pitch.

And there it went.

CRACK!

Up he looked, watching the stitched baseball spin rapidly in the Union sky, towering toward left field, plunging over the 300-foot fence, clearing it all together.

Home run? Home run!

Union players poured out of the dugout, as Woodward tapped home plate with those spikes, putting the go-ahead run on the scoreboard.

Home run? With a wooden bat? Over 300 feet? From a freshman?

You betcha.

This towering drive from Woodward propelled Union above visiting Rangers from Dufur, 5-3, finishing this Wooden Bat Tournament with an exclamation point.

Enforcing Rangers? Not today.

“It’s really nice to take our own tournament,” said Union coach Greg Poor, whose team improved to 6-2.

“It would’ve been extremely disappointing to lose this last game.”

No such worries now.

Thanks to Woodward.

This freshman whose first name matches the capital of Texas did his part on the mound, too. He went five innings.  Struck out eight batters.

Then delivered in the clutch with the game gridlocked.

Clutch? Understatement, perhaps.

“I pretty much knew it was going when it left the bat,” Woodward said. “It felt better than the other ones, I can tell you that.”

And we can tell you this: these Bobcats won three consecutive games as first-ever Wooden Bat Tournament hosts, defeating Sherman County and Corbett convincingly, then edging these Rangers from Dufur.

Enforcing Rangers? Not today.

“The kids came alive,” Poor said. “They stepped up and did their job.

“I think we started timing that pitcher pretty well.”

The Observer/BRUCE MASON

Back-to-back doubles from Ritter Warren and Cody Billman (2-for-3, 2 2B, RBI) helped Union take a 2-1 lead in the second. Dufur, however, responded immediately, scoring two in its next at-bat, retaking the lead, 3-2.

It stayed that way until the fifth. That’s when the Bobcats’ Kyle Langford delivered a two-out, two-strike sacrifice fly, tying the game.

Then Woodward delivered.

An insurance run was added.

And the Bobcats won — again.

“Five and one,” Poor said, referring to the Bobcats record during a six-game-in-six-day stretch.

“That’s a pretty good stint.”

Dufur         102 000 0     — 3 5 1

Union         020 012 x     — 5 6 3

 WP — Billman. LP — Tibbets. 

 2B — Warren, Billman (2). HR — Woodward.

Game 1

Corbett       0 0 0 10x      — 1  2 2

Union        10 0 2 1xx      — 13 11 2

 WP — Titus. LP — Young.

 2B — Titus (2), Savely, Warren, Herron