EUGENE – In the biggest game of the year going against possibly the best pitcher in the state, No. 7 South Umpqua/Days Creek (22-9) baseball turned to freshman Rudy Vasquez on the mound.
The opponent was No. 1 Taft (28-2) with Oregon-commit pitcher Zack Hankins, a senior, for the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 3A state baseball title Saturday at PK Park in Eugene.
Despite the age difference, Vasquez won the duel with a complete game and 10 strikeouts in the 5-1 Lancers victory, claiming their fourth state title in program history and first since 2022 (the two others were 1973 and 1979).
Vasquez said he learned he was going to pitch the day before the game, and he was ready to go despite the big stage.
“Just do the best I can and hit my spots,” Vasquez said about his mindset coming in.
“We’ve had three guys all year who have been outstanding for us, Cam Black, Logan Schwerdt and (Vasquez),” Lancers head coach Steve Stebbins said. “Rudy, he’s good. We run him out there and if we have trouble we can bring in a lefty and then we can finish with (Black), a righty, so different looks. That was the plan going in.
“But if you’re throwing the heck out of it, we’re gonna ride ya as long as long as you’ll go, and (Vasquez) threw the heck out of it today.”
Taft had trouble picking up Vasquez’s breaking ball as it consistently ended at bats or even got the freshman ahead in counts.
He came into the game with a 4-1 record and a sub 1.00 ERA, cementing his status as one of the top freshman arms in 3A.
“I was nervous at first because (Vasquez) pitched against Creswell (in the semifinals) and he (blew them away), I didn’t know he had that in him,” Lancers sophomore Camden Black said. “Today, he came back in, and I was a little nervous, but he proved everybody wrong.
“I’ve played baseball with him forever, I knew he had it in him.”
Hankins came out firing in the first frame as he sat the Lancers down in order, meanwhile Vasquez loaded the bases with two hit by pitches, but got out of it with a fly to left.
The second inning went by with no damage to either side, but South Umpqua was chomping at the bit to get to Hankins, and it started in the third.
Senior Brock Wells reached with a one-out walk and then stole second. An error off the bat of junior Braxton Hamilton put runners on second and third with the lone out.
There, Black came up and rolled a grounder to first, but the throw home was too late and the Lancers had the 1-0 lead.
“We knew we could hit, we’ve always hit against good pitching,” Black said. “It was so electric, it was crazy.”
Taft wasted no time responding in the bottom of the third though when Hankins launched a double to the right-center gap. Two batters later, sophomore Lonnie West doubled down the right field line to score Hankins and tie the game up at one after three.
The fourth inning is what decided the game though as the scrappy Lancer at bats paid off to the tune of four runs.
South Umpqua loaded the bases thanks to two walks and a hit by pitch with one out. Wells took another walk, plating one run to make it 2-1 Lancers.
Hamilton was next and hit a sac fly to left to push the lead to 3-1, and the runners advanced to third and second on the throw to home.
Up next, it was Black again and he picked up the Lancers’ first hit of the game with a single up the middle, scoring two more runs to push the lead to 5-1.
“The one where I knocked in those two runs, I came up to bat and was like, ‘I’m swinging at this first pitch, I don’t care where it’s at,’” Black said. “Got lucky and hit it up the middle. I don’t think I’ve ever been that hyped up before on a single.”
“He’s been huge, he’s one of our better hitters, hits No. 2 in the lineup all year,” Stebbins said of Black. “He’s only a sophomore. We have some good young players.”
Vasquez went to work from there, giving up a lone single in the bottom of the fourth and picking up two more strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth in a 1-2-3 inning.
The bottom of the sixth ended with two more Ks from Vasquez before some drama in the seventh with the game still at 5-1 Lancers.
With two outs, Hankins walked and sophomore Callen Ward had an infield single on a diving stop from Lancers shortstop Wells. He threw the ball away though trying to get Hankins at second, allowing the Taft senior to move up to third.
However, it didn’t matter as Vasquez struck out West in the next at bat to seal the victory.
“Hitting my spots was pretty great, defense was doing good and just had energy all game,” Vasquez said. “We lost a lot of games, but we fought back and won league and came here.”
Vasquez finished the complete game with one earned run on four hits with 10 strikeouts and one walk. Black was 1-for-4 but did have three RBI while junior Trace Esterbrook was the only other Lancer with a hit.
“We said this is gonna be a game where we have to scrap ways to try and win this ball game,” Stebbins said. “Bunting, stealing bases, drawing walks, try to run (Hankins’) pitch count up as much as we can. The guy averages 15-16 strikeouts a game, let’s try to put the ball in play and see if they can play defense. … Give ourselves a chance some way.”
Hankins threw six innings and allowed five runs, four earned, on two hits with eight strikeouts and four walks on 106 pitches. West came in relief for the seventh and walked one batter and had one strikeout with no hits.
The Tigers had only four hits overall, one each from Hankins, West, Ward and freshman Hayden Weiss. The loss was only the second this season for Taft who reached the state final for the first time in program history.
For South Umpqua, it started the year 5-6 after a brutal nonleague slate that featured three other 3A league winners in Vale, Creswell and Cascade Christian.
The Lancers lost all three of those games, along with losses to Pleasant Hill, 4A No. 1 seed Henley and 4A North Bend.
But those tough losses paid off in May and June as the tested Lancers were ready for whatever they might see with Taft.
“We played every league champion we could except for (Taft) and I think that prepared us,” Stebbins said. “We traveled too, so when we had to travel for the last few rounds of the playoffs, we were ready for it.”
“Keep battling and don’t give up,” Vasquez said of lessons learned from the nonleague.
It’s not about how you start, but rather how you finish, and South Umpqua proved that cliche to be true with title No. 4 in the program’s history.
Seniors Isaac Zola, Wells, Talen Lamm, Adam Whetzel, Schwerdt, Camden Stufflebeam, Xane Hopkins and Nolan DeWald get to go out on top after being role models for the guys below them.
And those young guys coming up proved they’re already here and are ready for more for years to come.
“We love having this younger team, our seniors really stepped up,” Black said. “We’re going to be good for a couple years. It’s crazy to think that a little Myrtle Creek/Tri-City town could come out here and win a state championship.”
“The love they have for each other,” Stebbins said of what made the difference in 2026. “They’re a team. They fight together, they scrap together and that’s the way they are all the time.”
austinw@osaa.org
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