MANGHAM - St. George is best known in Christianity for slaying the dragon.
The Oakdale baseball team faced the same task last Thursday as it battled against the Dragons of Mangham High School in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
The mighty Warriors delivered a blow in the top of the first inning as they scored a run on a bases loaded walk, but the team left the bases loaded without scoring any additional runs.
Oakdale’s defense let the team down in the bottom of the first inning that led to two errors and produced eight runs on Mangham’s way to a 12-1 win.
With the win, Mangham advanced to play Oak Grove in the Division IV Non-Select semifinals.
Four of the first inning runs Mangham scored on a grand slam home run from Carson Mooney. The other runs scored on a triple from Brody Hutson, a single from Lane Almond, and a double from Reggie Roberson.
Oakdale again loaded the bases in the top of the second inning, but a strikeout ended the inning with no runs scored.
Braedan Strother, who started the game on the mound for Oakdale, then settled in and retired Mangham in order in the home half of the second inning and again in the bottom of the third.
Gavin Thompson then led off the top of the fourth inning with a single. Oakdale then loaded the bases for the third time in the game with a walk to Matthew Hebert and a single to Kylar Ballard. However, once again, back-to-back strikeouts ended the Warrior threat with no damage done.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Jacoby Young added to the Mangham lead with a solo homer to give the Dragons a 9-1 advantage.
Later in the inning, Mangham added a run on a single from Blake Pierce and two runs on an Oakdale error.
The Warriors went down in order in the top of the fifth to end the game.
Almond got the start for Mangham and went four innings.
He allowed one earned run on two hits while walking four and striking out five.
Strother, for Oakdale, went 3.1 innings on the mound and gave up four earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out two batters.
