Dora knocks off rival Eminence in sectional round

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By Amanda Perkins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

The Dora Falcons topped the Eminence Redwings 12-3 Monday night to advance to the quarterfinal round of the Class 1 state tournament.

“I’ve been wanting to play in one of these games and to go all the way into the finals since my freshman year, and now we’ve got a group we can hopefully do that with,” said senior pitcher JJ Ryan. Ryan pitched five innings for Dora and said it meant a lot to him to be on the mound for the final outs, earning the win. He also was three for three at the plate with three singles.

Auston Luna had a big day for the Falcons at the plate and on the mound. “I hit a home run and kind of just got lucky. The ball ran into the bat, and I muscled it out,” he said with a laugh.

He struck out five in the first two innings and also knocked in three RBIs.

“We got a win against a good team and are going on to the quarterfinals,” added Auston.

Dora head coach Rick Luna said his boys came out fired up and ready to play. “Last year we were at this game and had a lead going into the seventh inning, and (Greenfield) ended up sneaking up and got us. So we were really wanting to get back to this point and beyond.”

The Redwings were first on the board when Wyatt Spurgin hit a double, scoring leadoff batter Reece Parrish after he was hit by a pitch, 1-0.

But Dora came out swinging, and their first six batters reached base and scored, propelling them to a 6-1 lead. The Falcons deepened their lead in the second with an Auston Luna home run.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

“Our approach at the plate was looking at fastballs and staying off the changeups,” said Coach Luna, “and hitting is contagious.”

Eminence put up two runs in the third, first from a Grant Dyer double followed by a Trent McBride double to score Dyer. Another double, this time from Trevor Voyles, scored McBride, 7-3.

Dora extended their lead by one in the bottom of the third with a Bryson Luna double to score JJ Ryan, who reached on an error, 8-3.

The Falcons loaded the bases, but McBride got the out at the plate to end the inning without further damage.

After a scoreless fourth for each team, the Falcons put up four runs in the bottom of the fifth. Mason Luna knocked in three of those runs with a triple to score Dylan Robertson, Dylan Martin, and Bryson Luna. Auston Luna’s at bat scored Bryson, 12-3, for the final run of the game.

“We knew things had to go our way,” said Redwings head coach Pete McBride. “They are a great team and have had a great year, and we needed to catch some breaks and make the routine play. We didn’t get either one of those things accomplished early in the game, and they got the lead and we tried to chip away at it, but it was just too much to overcome.”

McBride touched on the teams’ rivalry. “They are two competitive groups of kids and schools that have been in a lot of big games,” he said. “If you aren’t in the big games, you don’t have a chance to have a rivalry. The credit goes to them for being in big games and to our groups, too. It’s been fun.”

Coach Luna said the deep run his team made in basketball playoffs – which also ran through Eminence in district play – gave the young group confidence, as his crew is comprised of many of the same players.

“We always have to take one game at a time, but we felt we had a good game plan and were able to jump up on them early and pull Auston out of the game and put JJ in,” he said. “He came through and pitched a good game, and so now we have our one, two, and three available Wednesday.”

Dora will host Cooter Wednesday in the state quarterfinal.

“They play up and are fundamentally sound,” said Luna. “They have a deep lineup and play small ball, comparable to what we do.”

“I’m proud of all of them, they all did a good job today,” said Luna. “They stuck to the game plan and did what they needed to do. This bunch, especially my boys, can remember back in ’09 when we won it, and also where we got in basketball. If we can get through one more, we are kind of destined to run into St. Elizabeth again, and that’s the team we ran into in basketball. Still, you have to take one game at a time, and Cooter is a very good team.”

Coach McBride said Trent and Grant each had big games at the plate with a 3/4 day.

“We just had some bad luck,” he said. “We hit into a couple of double plays and just kind of knocked ourselves out of a chance at having the big inning that we needed to close the gap. Wyatt Spurgin, our catcher, had a phenomenal year, and Reece Parrish made a lot of plays at short today.”

“Those four seniors have just had great careers, won 3 district titles, so it’s kind of hard to watch them go out,” he added.

Box Score

Eminence 1 0 2 0 0 0 0
Dora 6 1 1 0 4 0

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