With a stretch of six consecutive non-league games coming so far into Colvin Auto’s summer season, coach Darren Bland decided to make the most out of the opportunity. So, rather than focusing on wins that would, as far as the final league standings are concerned, mean nothing, Colvin went to work.

The idea was to find the mistakes, however little, that were creeping into Colvin’s game and fix them.

“With all of those games coming in a row like that, we were just trying to get experience in,” said pitcher Taylor Smith, who will be a senior next season. “We’ve got a core group of guys coming back, but we’ve got some key guys coming in, too, and they’re really learning a lot. We’re just kind of working on doing a little bit every time out. Our mindset wasn’t on wins at all. We were just wanting to improve on some things. And I think we are showing improvement. It’s going a little slower than we’d like at times, but things are coming along.”

Out of those six contests, Colvin won just one, taking a 9-2 win at North Eugene on Tuesday. Several of those losses were near-misses, however. On Saturday, against Sunset, Colvin held a 2-1 lead, only to give up back-to-back errors and the win. Then, in the opener against Lincoln on Sunday, McMinnville used a bases-clearing triple by Ethan Daugherty to take a 5-3 lead, only to lose the game in the seventh. That luck continued into the nightcap Sunday and one-run deficit to start the top of the sixth was suddenly a four-run hole a half-inning later in an 8-4 loss.

“They started hitting the ball well at the end of the first game and it sort of carried over into the second game,” Smith said. “It just kind of got away from us. We just didn’t have the same pop in the second game.”

It looked like things would continue to go the wrong way on Tuesday, with Colvin not hitting well and trailing 2-0 to start the sixth. But, finally, things began to click. Five runs in the sixth and another four in the seventh gave Colvin a 9-2 win. Daugherty finished 2 for 5 while Zev Egli hit a two-RBI double and Cody Johnstone also connected on a pair of base hits, including the game-winning RBI double.

Zak Pearson went the distance to get the win on the mound. After giving up two runs in the third, the senior-to-be shut North Eugene down, finishing with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Colvin Auto scored one in the top of the first in the nightcap, but North Eugene responded with three runs in its half of the frame, helped by a Colvin error. Still, the opportunity to score a come-from-behind win was there, as the visitors had men on first and third with no outs in the seventh. A well-hit line drive that, had the defense not been shifted as far to the middle would have driven in one, instead went right into the shortstop’s glove and resulted in a double play. With one out remaining, Colvin wasn’t able to move anyone else in and fell 4-1.

Nik Patterson and Brandon Jones were both 2 for 4 in the loss.

“We lost five of six, so it’s kind of a bad stretch,” Bland said. “But we were able to play six different starters over that stretch and five of them will be on the team next year.

“And we started to work on some mechanical stuff. We started to break down swings and start over a little bit. Sometimes when you do that you can go backward a little, but I thought the guys had good swings. And they did look a lot better, but we were a little in front of the ball a bit timing wise. So we had to kind of work our way into that. And they did really well.

“We made some progress offensively. And we played three out of the last four days, and all three days we played were doubleheaders. I thought the pitching held up pretty well, but we just didn’t quite get to where we wanted to be with some of the other stuff behind it.”

Colvin (18-11 overall, 8-2 in league play) will be at home at 5 p.m. against Forest Grove, with the Junior State team following at around 7:30. Thursday will be another doubleheader at the Patton field against Scappoose.