contributions from Mike Safford.
ROSEBURG, Ore – The Klamath Falls Falcons (4-3) played four games in Roseburg at the annual Father’s Day Tournament. The Falcons won two games and dropped two games, here is how the weekend unfolded.
GAME 1 (FRIDAY): MID-VALLEY 5, KLAMATH FALLS 2
The Basin nine jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Corvallis was able to rally for the win. In the second, P.J. Safford led off with a walk and scored from first on a Tacchini double, with Tacchini scoring on a wild pitch. An inning later, 4A Player of the Year, Mark Carpenter tripled and scored on a Safford ground out.
The Marketmen (4-5) answered with two runs in each of the middle innings. Josh Riddle delivered a two-out, two-run bloop double in the third, while in the fourth, Nick Cimino gave his club the lead with a sacrifice fly.
Klamath tied the score in the fifth as Safford reached on a 2-out error and scored on a Tacchini double. Unfortunately, Corvallis answered with a Gavin Price RBI triple and a squeeze bunt to extend the margin to 6-4. The Falcons loaded the bases in the seventh, but a strikeout ended the game.
Corbin Hamilton went four-plus innings, allowing six runs on five hits, with Safford going an inning and two-thirds of scoreless relief. Tacchini had the lone multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.
GAME 3 (SATURDAY): KLAMATH FALLS 10, SALEM 2
This game was dominated by the Falcons arms, as Tacchini struck out five in four innings for his first win, with Chase Knecht earning the save with three shutout innings, fanning three.
Carpenter got KF on the board in the first, lining a triple into the left field corner and scoring on a wild pitch, with the Falcons adding four second inning runs – thanks to three walks, a dropped fly ball and a Carpenter run-scoring double. Hamilton made it 7-0 in the third, circling the bases on a ball to the right-center gap for a 2-run inside-the-park homer, while Tacchini lined his third double of the day in the fifth, giving the Falcons a 9-2 lead.
Carpenter finished 2-for-4 and Hamilton had two hits in the victory, as the Falcons combined for seven stolen bases. Owen Wood had the lone hit for the Dodgers (0-4).
GAME 4 (SUNDAY): KLAMATH FALLS 12, SALEM 0
Mark Carpenter tossed the first perfect game of his career, retiring all Salem Withnell Dodgers batters in order, as the Klamath Falls Falcons closed out the Docs Father’s Day Tournament with a 12-0 victory at Legion Field.
Dylan DeJong was 2-for-3 with four RBI and P.J. Safford added a pair of RBI to pace the Falcons (4-3) attack, taking advantage of nine walks and two hit by pitches in the victory. Klamath scored five first inning runs to give Carpenter the run support he needed, with the hurler helping his own cause with an RBI triple and DeJong lined a 2-out single up the middle to plate a pair. The Falcons made it 6-0 in the third, as Safford knocked home Corbin Hamilton with a sharply hit ground ball to third, while in the fourth, KF scored three runs on wild pitches, another on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and two others on a DeJong single.
Carpenter struck out five and was aided by a stellar defensive play at second base by Kollin Tacchini, who dived deep in the hole to snare a Brody Witbeck ground ball and threw the runner out at first to end the fourth inning.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Falcons are hosting a youth baseball camp beginning Monday, June 17th at Kiger Stadium. The next game is a single nine inning affair with the Grants Pass Nuggets on Thursday at Kiger. The the Falcons will host Gunderson Baseball, an instructional team from West Linn, Oregon. The four game set with Gunderson begins on Friday.
