Weed the hero as Tigers advance.

Byline: Joe Lodle The Register-Guard

JUNCTION CITY - Senior third baseman Blake Weed changed roles so fast that even Superman would have been impressed.

And he didn't even need a phone booth.

Weed went from being in the doghouse to being the game hero with one swing of the bat when he led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a towering, 390-foot home run to give Junction City a 6-5 victory over Philomath in the first round of the Class 3A prep baseball playoffs on Monday.

The win sends the Tigers (16-5) to Douglas, the No. 1 seed from the Far West League, for a second-round game on Wednesday.

"In my 22 years here, this is my first playoff win," Junction City coach Cal Fagan said. "If you're going to win, that's the way to do it ... walk up to the plate and hit a home run."

Weed committed the only error of the game in the fifth inning when he mishandled a hard-hit grounder by Quinn Lear to allow the Warriors (16-9) to score their third run.

"Blake's been in a slump lately after hitting around .500 in the first half of the season," Fagan said. "We changed his stance a little bit, and he hit the ball hard and had a good practice yesterday."

Freshman starting pitcher Cody Garner was 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI, and shortstop-relief pitcher Ryan Rauschert was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs to pace the Tigers' offense.

Aaron Davis was 3-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs and Josh Bitterman was 2-for-4 with a run scored to lead Philomath.

The Warriors took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on run-scoring singles by Davis and Matt Hill. Junction City answered with a run in the bottom of the inning when Rauschert scored on a bases-loaded walk to Kyle Raymond.

The Tigers pushed across four runs in the second. Garner doubled to bring in Justin Kaping, Rauschert followed with a single to score David Deutschman and Garner, and Deric Hemmele then singled to drive in Rauschert.

Trailing 5-2, Philomath scored a run in the fifth on Weed's error and added two more in the sixth on an RBI single by Davis and a sacrifice fly by Hill to tie the game.

Garner pitched the first five innings, giving up eight hits and three walks but striking out seven. Rauschert came in with no outs and two runners on in the sixth and finished the game.

"Cody had thrown a lot of pitches after not having thrown for a week," Fagan said. "Ryan did a good job; he got four wins this year just doing that."

The loss ends the season for Philomath. In Douglas, Junction City faces the No. 6-ranked team in the state.