Grant Union/Prairie City/Monument pitcher Talon Van Cleave struck out 13 batters en route to a 4-0 Prospector win in the team’s first 2A/1A Special District playoff game against the Irrigon Knights on Friday, May 10, at Malone Field in John Day.

The Pros scored their first run in the second inning following a fielding error on a Kingdon Kirby fly ball that saw Eric Culley come across home pate and left Lukas Blood on third. The Pros would get a second run in the inning after a passed ball brought Blood across the plate for a 2-0 Pro lead.

The Pros would again take advantage of Knight errors to put another run on the board in the third following a wild pitch that put Van Cleave on third base. Ryland Beil’s single brought Van Cleave home for a 3-0 Pro lead headed into the fourth inning.

The Pros would get one more run in the fourth via an RBI single from Weston Suchorski to push their lead to 4-0 going into the fifth inning of play.

After the fourth Van Cleave held serve, striking out three batters while keeping the Knights to a mere two baserunners throughout the duration of the game to seal the shutout win.

Leading the Pros offensively were Suchorski, who finished the game 1-3 at the plate with an RBI, and Beil, who finished 1-2 with an RBI. Van Cleave was masterful on the mound, surrendering no runs and just three hits to go with his 13 strikeouts.

Prospector head baseball coach RC Huerta said Van Cleave’s dominant performance inspired confidence in his team.

“They know that they’ve got to be out in the field making plays for him and battling — just doing the right stuff out there and supporting him,” Huerta said. “When you’ve got a leader like Talon doing work like that, it just builds the confidence of the team.”

The Pros haven’t lost a league game all year and are currently in the league playoff, jostling for seeding in the state tournament. Huerta said he doesn’t feel like his team is under any pressure despite going into the playoff with a perfect league mark.

“We don’t really try to put pressure on ourselves — it’s obviously natural and it can creep in, especially with teenage boys and teenage girls, but I feel like they haven’t had that,” he said. “Some of the preseason woes we had were big, and I told them that … I feel like it’s more confidence than pressure.”

The Pros are 17-6 on the season with a perfect 12-0 league record. The team continues to climb in the OSAA 2A baseball rankings, slotting in at No. 11.

They’ll be in action next for their final league playoff on Tuesday, May 14, when they hit the road to take on Heppner/Ione for the league title. The Pros will play their final game of the regular season on Thursday, May 16, when they travel to Burns to take on Burns/Crane.

The league playoff against Heppner is set for a 4 p.m. start time. The Pros’ date with Burns/Ione is slated to get started at 5:30 p.m.