KEIZER — In the first day of the Volcano Stadium Tourney at Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Stadium, the Hermiston Bulldogs were handed a 15-3 loss to a tough 6A opponent.

The McNary Celtics out of the Greater Valley Conference took control of the game early, building up a 5-0 lead after the first three innings. Jacob Jackson’s two-RBI double in the third highlighted McNary’s early efforts.

Hermiston’s scoring would come later. After reaching base only four times in the first four innings, the Bulldogs finally got on the board in the fifth.

Joey Gutierrez was Hermiston’s leadoff hitter, and reached first on a single to third base. Brylee Dufloth followed with a line drive and was safe thanks to an error, which also gave Gutierrez time to get to third. Next with Jordan Ramirez at the plate, Dufloth stole second and Gutierrez made it home for the first run of the inning. Ramirez grounded out to shortstop when Dufloth recorded the second run to cut the deficit to 5-2.

But the Celtics ran away with the game in the seventh, scoring 10 runs. Seth Prewitt was able to get the Bulldogs out of the inning, catching a pop fly and inducing a fly out to first base but the damage was already done.

Hermiston scored a lone run in the bottom of the seventh off a sacrifice fly from Trevor Wagner but it was too little too late.

Lukas Tolan ended up taking the loss on Day 1 of the three-day affair after giving up two hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings of work. Tolan struck out four.

In Day 2, Hermiston’s woes continued but instead of the 15-3 defeat Thursday, this loss would come by a lone run scored in the bottom of the seventh inning by Aloha — a 6A team out of the Metro League.

It was a pitchers dual with Hermiston being the only team to get one base with a hit. The efforts were from a lone batter, Wyatt Noland.

Noland went 2-for-3 on the day, and gave the Bulldogs two good opportunities to get on board.

In the fourth, Noland doubled on a fly ball to center field but was left stranded. Again in the seventh as the leadoff hitter, Noland reached first on a ground ball to left field but Hermiston couldn’t capitalize.

This left the Warriors one final chance in the bottom of the inning, and they took it.

After batters at the bottom and the top of Aloha’s lineup reached base on errors, Travis Helm was intentionally walked. The next batter also got to first on a walk, which advanced all runners giving the Warriors the walk-off run.

Noland was given the loss after coming in for relief of Dufloth.

In the final day of play, things were looking promising for the Bulldogs.

On Saturday, Hermiston was up 3-0 early against Aloha.

The early lead was capped off with a two-RBI single off the bat of Tolan that scored Dufloth and Landon Jones.

But the Warriors began to chip away at their deficit and ended up taking the game, 12-6, after an eight-run sixth inning. Until that point the Warriors had only four hits to their name.

Caden Schwirse was given the loss after toeing the rubber for 4 1/3 innings, allowing six hits off six runs and striking out two.

In Game 2 versus McNary, Hermiston didn’t have enough offense to keep up with the Celtics as the Bulldogs had just two runs and two hits in a 12-2 loss. Noland took the loss after pitching one inning of relief and allowing three hits and four runs while striking out one and walking zero.

Noland was Hermiston’s top hitter on the day with two hits and two runs scored, while Tolan had two RBI.

The Bulldogs sit at 2-6 after the tough weekend of play, and returned to the diamond Tuesday for a doubleheader against La Grande. Results from both games were not available at press time.