Rural Baseball Inc., took its show across the border this past weekend, heading out to Calgary, Alberta for the Pacific Northwest Senior Babe Ruth regional tournament, and reaching the semifinals of the 10-team field.
“At the end of the day, we felt like we could take on anyone, and we rode that through the end of the tournament,” RBI coach J.C. Workman said.
After starting their run up north with a Southwest Washington rivalry, beating out Kelso Premier 3-1, the Dirtbags dropped a 22-1 stinker to Brewster.
That set up a pivotal game against Rock Springs (Wyo.), which started with the Dirtbags digging themselves a 5-0 hole.
RBI started the comeback in the fifth inning with a two-spot, then added two more in the sixth to cut the deficit to 5-4. In the seventh, the Dirtbags began to rally again, before a tough call drew Workman — the only coach RBI had traveled — out of the dugout to argue, and subsequently get ejected.
“As I walked out of the dugout, I was like, ‘Chappy, you’re up, bud,’” Workman said.
So it was the Napavine’s Austin Chapman, while waiting for his next at-bat, became the Dirtbags’ acting manager, and saw out the remainder of the comeback as Connor Darnell hit a game-tying double and Dom Rowland drove him home to make it 6-5.
Rock Springs immediately filed a protest, but in a phone conference after the game, the Babe Ruth offices ruled that nothing barred a player from also acting as a coach.
RBI went on to beat the Calgary Blues 11-5 to seal the second spot in their five-team pool, punching their ticket to bracket play. After getting Saturday off, they faced Sandy Pack (Ore.) in a semifinal, ultimately losing 8-4.
The Pack jumped out to an early lead, plating four runs off of Oakville’s Tre Groninger, before scoring four more against Toledo’s Gavin Frewing to make it 8-1.
Chapman, back in his normal role as just a player, went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
The Dirtbags finished their run in Canada with a 3-2 record, coming back to America to get into the fall season and wait for the rains to come and go before baseball can return.
“Before State, a lot of these guys had never seen postseason baseball. It was new for me a couple years ago,” Workman said. “It took some getting used to, but I think this weekend really made us better as a team for the future.”
