Burns builds an early 9-1 lead, but must stave off a furious Eagle rally to win its second straight 3A title, 11-8, at Keizer's Volcanoes Stadium. 3A state POY Tommy Ghost Dog goes the distance for the Hilanders, throwing 148 pitches for the complete game victory.

Read our OregonPrepSports game recap here ...

After the National Anthem by a WSC quartet, we are ready for action as the sun is setting enough to place most of the box seats into a cool shade that some find too cool for comfort. Each team has a strong and vocal support base, with Eastern Oregon sitting on the West, and Western Oregon occupying the East side of the ballpark.

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1st Inning: Burns 6 - WSC 1

The Eagles waste no time getting after Ghost Dog, whose first seven pitches are no where near the strike zone. After Scott Moyer walks on four pitches, Austin Layton works Ghost Dog to a full count before drawing ball four also. WSC all-state catcher Nate Mays steps in and also works Ghost Dog to a full count before driving a single to left field, loading the bases for all-state pitcher and clean-up hitter Chris Mueller. Needing all the help he can get, Mueller gives himself an early 1-0 lead with a deep sacrifice fly to left center, scoring Moyer. But the Eagle rally dies when Josh Britton pops into a double play to end the inning. But the Eagles have scored early on Ghost Dog, something WSC needed to do after losing to Burn 13-0 earlier this season.

Any momentum WSC may have earned in the top of the first quickly evaporated in the bottom of the first, when Burns pasted Mueller for six runs on five hits, aided by two Eagle errors. And it could have been worse. Caleb Feist got the Hilanders rolling on a throwing error by WSC shortstop Britton, sending Feist to second to lead off the inning. Garret Swisher sends the first pitch he sees down the right field line for a single, sending Feist to third. Ghost Dog helps himself with an RBI single to left. Logan Garner follows with a fly to right field that is dropped for an error by Moyer, scoring Swisher. Drew Heinz then jumped on the first pitch and smacked a single to left, loading the bases with no outs. After Jory Fritts struck out, Dallon Swindlehurst worked Mueller to a full count before taking ball four, earning him an RBI. Matt Ogata swung at the first pitch and singled down the line in left, driving in Heinz and Garner for a 5-1 lead. Ogata is forced out at second for the second out. The Hilanders add one more run as Swindlehurst scores on a wild pitch by Mueller.

Burns sent eleven batters to the plate and the Hilanders had the look of a team that has been here before, while Westside Christian looks like a team making only its second-ever post season appeareance. Going into this game, few observers would have predicted another 13-run blowout, but Burns is already halfway there.

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2nd Inning: Burns 6 - WSC 1

Neither team scores as Mueller and Ghost Dog do their jobs in the second inning.

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3rd Inning: Burns 8 - WSC 1

The Eagles send only four batters to the plate in the third inning, but one of them is Mays, who doubles to left field, but is left stranded when Mueller grounds out to second.

Ogata gets Burns rolling again with a single to left field. Mueller then uncorks another wild pitch, sending Ogata to second. After Trevor Smith pops out to Mueller, the Eagle hurler plunks Feist. The Eagles defense fails them again as Austin Layton can't handle Garrett Swisher's grounder, loading the bases with one out. Mueller then launches his third wild pitch in as many innings, scoring Ogata standing up. Ghost Dog's sacrifice fly to left scores Feist for an 8-1 lead after three innings.

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4th Inning: Burns 9 - WSC 1

Westside Christian goes down 1-2-3 as Ghost Dog stikes out Britton, gets Bray on a ground out to third, and finsihes off Zack Reniker on a pop out to first.

Drew Heinz leads off with a single for Burns, but is caught stealing by Mays' laser throw to second. Fritts strikes out for the second out and Mueller looks to be heading for an easy inning. But Swindlehurst doubles to left center. Hilander coach Kevin Feist sends out Patrick Stampke to run for Swindlehurst and the move pays off as Ogata lines his third base hit of the game down the right field line for an RBI single. Ogats's thrid hit of the game finished off Mueller, who was relieved on the mound by Bray, who got the final two outs of the inning. After four innings, Burns leads WSC 9-1 and appears on its way to a comfortable margin of victory. Not quite.

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5th Inning: Burns 10 - WSC 5

Coming off the field after the end of the fourth inning, Westside Christian had all the look of a dejected, defeated team. Trailing 9-1 to a team that had whipped them 13-0, the Eagles could have tossed in the proverbial towel. Instead, they rose up and rocked Ghost Dog for four runs in the top of the fifth.

The inning started mildly enough with Alex Easterlin drawing a walk, followed by Ryan Herd striking out. Leadoff hitter Scott Moyer beat out a bunt for an infield single, sending Easterlin to second. The Eagle faithful were now aroused and sensed that their 21-2 Eagles were about to take flight. Austin Layton next reached on an error by Feist, loading the bases for Nate Mays, already 2-2 in the game with a double his last at bat. Ghost Dog's first pitch to Mays was a hanging breaking ball that the WSC catcher rocketed deep to left field for a 2 RBI double. The WSC fans were on their feet.

Clean-up hitter Mueller then stepped in a drove a Ghost Dog offering to the base of the wall beneath the Volcanoes scoreboard for another 2 RBI double. Between them, Mays and Mueller and just hit two balls a combined 700 feet that would have been homne runs at most high school ball fields. But the Burns lead would stay at 9-5 as the Eagle rally died when Britton fleid out to center and Bray flied out to Feist, who made a nice running catch.

Championship teams often have the ability to strike back after eing scored upon, and Burn lived up to that trait. After Swisher flied out to right for the first out, Ghost Dog doubled to left and advanced to third on Garner fly out to right field. With two outs, Drew Heinz dribbled a routine grounder to third that went right through the legs of Mueller for an error and an unearned run. Burns gladly accepted the gift, which doubled the score to 10-5.

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6th Inning: Burns 11 - WSC 7

Burns had a five run lead and needed only six more outs to seal the win. But the Eagles were not finsihed with Ghost Dog yet. After Renicker gorunded out to Feist, Easterlin reached first on a Feist error. Ryan Herd then drove an 0-1 pitch deep to right cetner for an RBI double, scoring Easterlin all the way from first base. Moyer then punched a single through the right side, sending Herd to third. Ghost Dog then struck out Layton for the second out, bringing Mr. Mays to the plate with runners at first and third and two outs. In his previous two at bats, Mays had drilled the first pitch he saw from Ghost Dog, who didn't learn that lesson. Once again, the Burns southpaw tossed up a breakng ball to Mays, who once again saw what he liked and responded with a liner to left field that scored Herd and sent Moyer to third. Mays hustled into second on the throw form the outfield and was credited only with an RBI single. But the Eagles had closed the gap to 10-7 and had runners at second and thiord with Mueller representing the tying run at the plate.

With first base open, Ghost Dog walked Mueller on four pitches to load the bases for Josh Britton. With the bases loaded, Britton worked the count to 2-2 before skuying a high pop up that was caught by second baseman Swisher to end the inning and the WSC threat.

Once again, Burns answered the Eagles run with one of their own. After Swindlehurst grounded out to Britton, Ogata and Smith drew consecutive walks. Walking the No.'s 8 and 9 hitters to bring up the top of the order was not in Eagle coach Adam Sarancik's game plan. Sure enough, leadoff hitter Feist rifled a crisp single down the left field line, scoring Ogata to give Burns an 11-7 lead heading into the final inning.

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7th Inning: Burns 11 - WSC 8

With Ghost Dog approaching 130 pitches for the game, Westside Christian came out strong in the final stanza, hoping to build on their scoring momentum of the previous two innings. Bray got things rolling when he beat out an infield single. Ghost Dog than zipped an inside fastball a bit too close and nicked Renicker. With Easterlin at bat, Bray took off for third and barely beat the throw for a stolen base. Renicker wisely also stole second uncontested on the play. Easterlin then drove a 2-1 pitch to Feist, for an RBI ground out, scoring Bray. Herd followed with another ground out to Feist, who held Renicker at third for the second out. Scott Moyer then kept the inning alive by taking a close pitch high on a full count for a two-out walk. Austin Layton then stepped into the box representing the tying run. Layton wasted no time, as he swung at Ghost Dog;s 148th pitch and sent a towering fly ball to right center field that came down in the golve of Trevor Smith for the final out of the game.

As the red clad Eagles slowly left the field to the standing ovation of their fans, a growing pile of Hilanders was emerging in front of the pitchers mound. For the second time in two years - and the second time the same day - a defending champ had retained its crown.

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Post Game Notes: To no one's surprise, the QWEST Players of the Game were Ghost Dog and Mays. The Burns senior left hander gave up five earned runs in his iron man performance, went 2-4 at the plate, scored two runs and drove in two others. Meanwhile, Nate Mays went 4-4 with 3 RBI's and a run scored. After the junior 1st team all-state catcher threw out Heinz in the fourth inning, the Eagles didn't try another steal attempt.