Grant Union/Prairie City’s Kingdon Kirby looks to make contact with the ball during his team’s matchup with Kennedy on May 22, 2024, at Malone Field in John Day.

Competitive sports can be a cruel mistress.

The Grant Union/Prairie City Prospector baseball team headed into their opening-round matchup in the OSAA 2A State Baseball Tournament with the Kennedy Trojans on a seven-game wining streak and had expectations of a deep postseason run.

Instead, the Pros would battle rain, wind and a tough Kennedy team before falling 5-2 to the Trojans on Wednesday, May 22, at Malone Field in John Day.

The Trojans would get on the board early, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning following an error and a sacrifice fly to stake themselves to a 2-0 lead. The Pros would respond in the fourth inning, when a Talon Van Cleave sacrifice fly brought Sheldon Lenz across home plate to cut the Trojan lead in half at 2-1 entering the fifth.

The Trojans would respond in the fifth and put a little more daylight between themselves and the Pros, scoring a pair of runs in the inning after a double and a single brought three Trojan base runners home for a 5-1 Trojan lead. The Pros would again cut into the margin in the top of the sixth, scoring a run on a Lukas Blood single to trail 5-2 headed into the seventh and decisive inning.

A three up, three down top of the seventh put the Pros back at the plate and set the stage for a potential walk-off win for the squad.

With runners on second and third base and the tying run at bat, the Trojans got the third out they needed in the seventh via strikeout to defeat the Pros 5-2 and move on to the next round of the state playoffs.

Van Cleave and Blood paced the Pros on offense, with each finishing the game with an RBI while going 0-2 and 1-3 at the plate, respectively. Lenz did not have an RBI in the game but the Grant Union senior went 2-4 at bat while scoring two runs in his last appearance in a Prospector uniform.

Van Cleave took the loss on the mound for the Pros. The senior struck out seven Trojan batters while allowing three earned runs and seven hits in what was also his final appearance as a Prospector.