The Eagles huddle after the game May 22. The team’s season ended with a 16-8 loss to Brookings-Harbor in a second-round 3A playoff game.

ENTERPRISE — The Brookings-Harbor baseball team took advantage of Wallowa Valley errors in a critical sixth inning to erase an Eagles lead by scoring six runs — and then added six more in the seventh to claim a 16-8 playoff victory on Wednesday, May 22.

The loss ended a successful Eagles season in which the team again clinched the 3A Special District title and went 19-5 overall.

On a May afternoon that saw bursts of snow and rain, about 200 people watched the eighth-seeded Eagles jump out to a 7-4 lead going into the top of the sixth inning of the second-round playoff game.

Eagles coach Zack Grover said his team capitalized on some Bruins errors in those early innings.

But the wheels fell off for the Eagles in the sixth, as the team made some uncharacteristic fielding errors, opening the door for the Bruins to score six times.

“They got some runs out of some errors that we made,” Grover said. “They have a good ball club over there in Brookings and they knew what to do with the lead.”

What the Bruins did with the lead was add another six runs in the seventh to essentially put the game away. The Eagles added a run of their own in the bottom of the seventh, but the Bruins closed the door on any potential rally.

Grover noted some similarities between the Eagles and the Bruins.

“They’re well-coached, they’re the same as we are – a senior-heavy team” with playoff experience.

Grover had praise for all his players and singled out some for their performance on Wednesday, including seniors Drew Beachy, Jaxon Grover and Ty Prince.

“Drew did well on the mound,” Grover said, adding that Jaxon Grover and Prince collected timely hits. “We just capitalized on getting runners on, and when we had them on, we moved them around and executed.”