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FLORENCE — Call it a bump in the road.

With a handful of key players sitting out to rest for the playoffs, the Three Rivers Sandblasters suffered a 14-1 loss at the hands of the Eugene Challengers at home Tuesday in non-league American Legion AAA action.

From the standpoint of the Sandblasters’ coaches and players, it was worth giving some regulars a break and younger guys some experience, even though it meant taking a beating in a game that didn’t matter.

“We’re just trying to rest some of our guys. It’s been a long season,” said Sandblasters veteran Tyler Mais, noting that Three Rivers standouts Alex Clark, Scott Buche, Drew Rainwater, Travis Iverson and others were sitting this one out.

“We wanted to give some guys who don’t play as much some exposure to this level of play,” added Sandblasters coach Alex Morales.

The game turned ugly early.

Trailing 2-0 in the second inning, Three Rivers pitcher Trevor Roberts watched as Eugene’s Colton Thomas smacked a bases-loaded triple to score three runs. Then a sacrifice fly quickly made the game 6-0.

In the bottom of the second, the Sandblasters missed an opportunity to get right back in the game. After Kale Forrester reached first on an infield dribbler and David King walked, Joe Crowe stepped up to the plate. With a 1-1 count, he was drilled in the head on a pitch from Eugene pitcher Tim Keller.

Crowe — who was playing at catcher to give Ethan Ottemiller a break — went down to the ground immediately, but walked off the field with a growing lump on the side of his head that could be seen from the bleachers.

“I could see (the lump) growing when I was out there with him at home plate,” said Morales. “It was kind of creepy.”

Morales said Crowe went to Peace Harbor Hospital in Florence to have some precautionary tests, but he appeared to be all right.

Regardless, Crowe’s literal approach to taking one for the team loaded the bases and gave Three Rivers a chance to close the gap, but Mais struck out to end the inning.

The Sandblasters’ only run came in the third, when Cole Skriver singled and stole second. Then Forrester drove an RBI single past second base to bring Skriver home.

Other than that, it was all Eugene, as the Challengers scored three more runs in the third, four in the fourth and another in the sixth to put the final tally at 14-1. The Sandblasters were out-hit 10 to 5, and had 2 errors to none for Eugene.

For the Challengers, Grant Mascolo went 2-for-4 with a double, 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Colton Thomas was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple with 2 runs scored.

Keller pitched five innings, giving up one run and three hits with six strikeouts.

Following the game, the Sandblasters seemed to take the loss in stride. After all, the team now goes into Thursday’s playoff matchup with Salem Withnell Dodge having won five of its last six in Zone 3 play, and eight of the last 11.

Three Rivers finished league play at 9-6 with a win over Springfield on Monday, trailing just Zone 3 champion Richey’s Market, which went 11-4.

Withnell Dodge beat Albany 13-3 on Tuesday to move into a tie for second with Three Rivers. The Dodgers will host Thursday’s game because they beat the Sandblasters in the season series. The game is set for 5 p.m.

Richey’s Market hosts Salem Post 9 in Corvallis in the other playoff game Thursday. The winners meet Friday to determine the league’s top two seeds for the next round of the playoffs, when Zone 3 matches up against Area 4 to determine spots in the state tournament. The losers of Thursday’s game meet Friday in an elimination game, with only the winner advancing to the Zone 3 vs. Area 4 playoffs.

In the next round, the top seed from Zone 3 meets the No. 3 seed from Area 4, while the No. 2 seeds also square off and the No. 3 team from Zone 3 meets the top seed from Area 4. The teams will battle in a best-of-three format, with the winners of each matchup reaching the state tournament. Last year, Three Rivers swept Klamath Falls to advance to state.

Just being guaranteed a postseason berth is a 180-degree change from the beginning of the season this summer, when the Sandblasters went 0-3 to start. At that point things were looking bleak after the ballclub had lost six of its nine starters from a 2007 team that won Zone 3 outright and went deep in the state tournament.

Three Rivers’ players say it just took this long for the team to jell.

“We knew we were going to be a late team,” said Mais. “We weren’t going to be a June team. We were going to be a July team.

“We’re finally getting a feel for each other as players. We’ve bonded real well, and things are starting to work for us.”

“It’s just that word, ‘team.’ We’re finally playing like a team,” added Rye Espinosa.

Ottemiller said the positive results this season came from a lot of effort.

“Everyone’s been working really hard. We’ve just been kind of building up, getting deeper and stronger,” he said. “It’s a good time for us to be getting into our groove.”

Back in June, it was tough to imagine this year’s Sandblasters would go 9-6, just one win short of matching the much older, more experienced 2007 team’s 10-5 record. But, said Morales, the playoffs are whole different kind of experience.

“It’s the playoffs. Anything can happen at any time. I like our team, but now everyone we play is going to be good,” he said. “If we play together, I like our chances, though.”

Eugene Challengers 14, Three Rivers Sandblasters 1

Eugene 153 401 0 — 14 10 0

Three Rivers 001 000 0 — 1 5 2

Tim Keller, Caleb Carter (5) and Grant Mascolo. Trevor Roberts, Kevin Warren (4), Chad Wells (7) and Joe Crowe, Ethan Ottemiller (3), David King (6). 2B—Eug: Mascolo; TR: Ottemiller. 3B—Eug: Colton Thomas.