Brian Prawitz has been with Brooke Communications since 2002. You can hear Brian on the Morning Report on KQEN and on The Score as the voice of Roseburg football and basketball and Doc Stewart's American Legion baseball. In 2009 he was hired by the Oregon Sports Network to announce Oregon Duck baseball with Jerry Allen.
Here is the list of the teams that also qualfied for the 2010 American Legion World Series. Not all of the teams records were provided by their regional statisticians, but this provides some more information about the field the Docs will compete against.
Friday - August 13
Game 1 10 am
Southeast - Kernersville, NC vs. Western – Las Vegas, NV
Game 2 Doubleheader
Mid-Atlantic – Chesapeake, VA vs. Mid-South Midwest City, OK
Game 3 5 pm
Northeast – Brandford, CT vs. Great Lakes – Moline, IL
Game 4 Doubleheader
Central Plains – Eden Prairie, MN vs. Northwest – Roseburg, OR
Northwest – Roseburg, OR (33-12). Roseburg swept through the tournament with a 6-3 win over Kelso, Washington.
Western – Las Vegas, Nevada (44-16). Las Vegas defeated Hawaii and the beat the hosts, who were also from Las Vegas, 9-0 in the 15th game.
Central Plains – Eden Prairie, MN (35-7). Festus, Missouri beat Eden Prairie, Minnesota 6-1 to force a 15th game. Eden Prairie won the deciding game 15-5 in seven.
Great Lakes – Moline, IL (41-7). Terra Haute, IN beat Moline 11-2 to force a 15th game. Moline scored five runs in the top of the eighth for the 8-5 win.
Mid South – Midwest City, OK. The Midwest City Outlaws lost their first game, then beat League City, Texas to get a shot at the title against Pontotoc, Mississippi. League City won the title 7-2.
Southeast – Kernersville, NC (31-15). The hosts almost won the title at home. Columbia forced a 15th game by beating Kernersville Sunday night. Columbia beat Conyers, GA 15-9 for a rematch with Kernersville, which lead 3-1 after one and scored four in the fourth to put the game out of reach in a 10-2 win.
Mid-Atlantic – Chesapeake, VA. Chesapeake swept through the tournament, ending with 6-2 win over Brooklawn, New Jersey.
Northeast – Branford, CT (28-7). Branford lost the Sunday night game to East Longmeadow, MA. East Longmeadow beat Goffstown, NH 2-1 for the rematch in the 15th game. Branford broke a 1-1 tie with the deciding run in the bottom of the eighth for the Regional Title.
I keep saying this again and again, but I think its true:
The Doc Stewarts run to the Northwest Regional Final is unbelievable.
In fact, this is the run of a lifetime.
This is why every sports fan comes back around when the playoffs start, no matter how frustrating or disappointing the regular season has been.
The Docs went from being just another team heading to the state tournament to the Oregon Champions.
Not just winning it, but beating arch-rival Medford.
Not just beating Medford, beating them twice.
And not just beating them twice, but never trailing in the 18 inning marathon.
That story alone would get a Hollywood movie writer fired.
I think most people would have been proud of the Docs even if they had come to Spokane and lost in two games. Some would have been happy with a win or two at Regionals.
Instead, the Docs have dominated here.
Roseburg’s offense is working to perfection.
Johnny Farrington leads the tournament in plate apperances; Cameron Newell is in the hunt for the MVP with a .636 batting average and a .650 on base percentage; and Mitch Huff is among tournament leaders with an .846 slugging percentage.
The trio of Farrington, Newell and Huff has scored 24 runs. They are all tied for first with 8 runs scored each.
Those three are scoring because Josh Graham and Vince Ampi are on a tear that no one in the tournament can match.
Graham is tied for the lead with three home runs and a tournament high eleven RBI. His .944 slugging percentage is third and he is second in total bases with 17.
Ampi has ten runs driven in and leads the tournament with four doubles.
The combination of Newell (3), Graham (2) and Ampi (2) has also produced seven sac flies.
From a pitching standpoint, the Docs are among the best, too.
Dakota Cavens pitched the only complete game of the tournament in Sunday’s 9-7 win over Montana.
Brandon Jackson’s 1.08 ERA is second and his 8.1 innings pitched is fourth highest.
Josh Graham’s 8.0 innings is fifth best in the tournament.
Jared Priestley turned in 7.0 innings in his start, too.
No other team has had that kind of production from its starting pitching.
Thats why the Docs are 4-0.
I think the thing that makes this run so special is this: even a heavy favorite dreams of having the kind of tournament these upstart Docs are having.
If you had a four man rotation that was 48-0 on the season and an offense that hit .500 with 100 home runs, you're still not assured a trip to the World Series.
The Docs are performing like a team with those fictitious numbers.
However, Roseburg made it this far on a two man rotation and an offense with potential, but one that never hit its stride.
Correction. Hadn’t hit its stride.
Right now the Docs are in stride, heading to within one game of the American Legion World Series.
That is the most common thing I have heard since getting back from Klamath Falls Sunday night.
Doc Stewarts fans are trying to comprehend the fact that the Docs, who finished fourth place in Area 4, who were swept by Klamath Falls two weeks ago, who lost their third starter and turned to a 15 year old on a short leash, are the 2010 Oregon State Champions.
The thrill of the win is made sweeter by the fact that the Docs beat Medford. Medford to win the title. Twice! IN ONE DAY!
Its all too much to take in.
But we have time. We have a lifetime to enjoy this one.
It almost took a lifetime to get the 11th state title in program history.
The best thing about it is that no one saw it coming.
I have watched just about every game the Docs have played in twelve seasons (1993-95, 2000-2010). Some years, the expectations were huge. Other times, the Docs hit the state tournament as the favorite.
A few times, they overachieved and reached the semifinals. Other times, the end result was a disappointment.
Every year I have gone to the state tournament, one team surprises everyone. Occasionally that team took the title. Other times it was enough that they made it to the final day or forced the eventual winner to an extra game.
From time to time, like last year when Corvallis upset Medford, a team knocks off the prohibitive favorite. But usually you can pick the winner on the first day of the tournament.
It was like that this year.
No one was going to be able to hang with Medford.
Then the Docs did it.
Finally for Roseburg fans, the team that got hot at the right time and blasted through the ceiling of expectations was our team!
One of the flaws of this team early in the year was its inability to maintain energy.
The Docs would get a lead and sit on it, seemingly going into neutral until the opponent rallied to win the game.
That all stopped in the Super Regional. The Docs started getting hungrier. They began to push for more offense, no matter the score.
That attitude was put on display against Salem Withnell in the semifinals.
The Docs were chasing the Dodgers all game long. They didn't give up and when they got the lead, it wasn't enough for them.
The Docs won 18-14 to go into the final.
Then, the biggest game of the tournament was the last one Medford would win.
Salem Post 9 amazed the crowd by getting a 10-0 lead on the Mustangs, who rallied in the 8th and 9th to win 12-11.
The rally was amazing, but the toll was significant.
The win meant Medford had to play Roseburg on Sunday morning at ten - less than 12 hours after the end of the Post 9 win.
The Mustangs didn't look capable of handling Brandon Jackson and maybe more important, they didn't play good defense behind Matt Maurer. The Docs dictated the tempo and forced Medford to fight back to stay in the game.
They couldn't.
Game two was started with a shock. Instead of maintaining the momentum of their six run rally in the ninth inning of game one, Medford starter Brady Shipley was rocked by Josh Graham's home run and a five run first.
The Docs blew it open later and thankfully had enough runs in the bank to fend off the inevitble Medford push.
It was like watching Jack chop down the beanstalk. Only when the whole thing was about to topple did the giant start to scramble.
But the Docs finished the job.
What a thrill.
The Docs open the Regional Tournament Thursday at 4:30 at Gonzaga University.
Oregon's state champ has always fared well at regionals. I figure its because we take American Legion baseball so seriously here.
Who knows, maybe the Docs will be the team that finds that magic streak that shoots them to the World Series. When Roseburg hosted the regional a few years ago, it took eventual champ Kennewick everything it had to win the tournament.
