FLORENCE — The Three Rivers Sandblasters have dominated the lower half of the Zone 3 standings this summer. It’s a failure to beat the league’s best two teams that likely will keep the Sandblasters from the American Legion AAA State Tournament.

Three Rivers fell to 0-4 against the top two teams when the Sandblasters were shut out 7-0 by Richey’s Market of Corvallis at Florence on Tuesday.

Aaron Corwin stifled the Three Rivers offense and Thomas McCarthy crushed a pair of home runs for Richey’s Market in the win.

“We haven’t beaten a team with a winning record all year,” said Three Rivers coach Ben Johnson, whose club fell to 7-5 in Zone 3 play heading into a game tonight in Salem against Withnell Dodge, the league’s other top squad.

The big culprit in Tuesday’s loss was a lack of timely hitting against Corwin.

“We don’t hit well in the Red Zone,” Johnson said, referring to situations with runners on second or third base. “We’re trying. It just hasn’t worked out.”

Because of that, Corwin, a standout on the Corvallis High School squad that lost to Thurston in the Class 5A championship game this spring, was able to out-duel North Bend ace Bryce Weidman.

The two pitchers were locked in a great battle through three quick innings that took just 20 minutes, but McCarthy hit a two-out home run in the fourth inning to give Richey’s Market a 1-0 lead.

An inning later, Chase Sanders had a leadoff single, moved to second on a bad pick-off throw, and later scored on a two-out double by Tregg Smith.

McCarthy struck again in the sixth inning, with a one-out homer that went over the left-field fence a few feet from his first bomb.

Weidman said both homers came on his mistakes — a fastball that he left up in the strike zone and a hanging curveball.

McCarthy, who broke the Western Oregon University school record by hitting .461 as a freshman this spring, said he knew the first ball was out the moment he hit it.

“The second one, I just tried to put a good swing on it,” he said. “I was thinking it was a double.”

McCarthy got enough of the pitch to put it just over the fence.

That should have been the final run for Richey’s Market, but the Corvallis team added four more scores in the fifth inning after a dropped third strike with two outs gave the team more life and Jake Likewise later hit a three-run home run.

As it turned out, the extra runs didn’t matter. Corwin kept the Three Rivers hitters off balance with a good curveball and his team backed him up with spotless defense that turned three double plays.

“He’s our No. 1,” McCarthy said. “We know every time he goes out there, he’s going to do a great job and we just try to hit the ball and put up some runs for him.”

The best chance for the Sandblasters came in the fourth inning, when Drew Rainwater was hit by a pitch leading off the inning. Johnson said that No. 3 hitter Zach Laxague missed a hit-and-run signal. Richey’s Market catcher Chase Sanders easily threw Rainwater out at second base.

Later in the inning, Travis Iverson and Weidman had back-to-back two-out hits and Kevin Warren walked to load the bases. But Corwin got Ricky Ballentine to ground out to second to end the inning.

In the seventh inning, Weidman walked and Matt Fritz hit a two-out double, but Corwin again got out of trouble by inducing an infield pop-up by Joe Crowe.

For the game, Three Rivers had six hits, including two singles each by Weidman and Iverson.

Weidman couldn’t explain why Corwin was so effective.

“I didn’t think it was that hard to hit off him,” Weidman said.

But the Sandblasters couldn’t, and failed to score one game after pounding out 20 hits in a win over Grants Pass. Even in that game, though, Three Rivers left 15 runners on base.

“We’re just not hitting the ball,” Johnson said. “We must be hitting under .100 with the bases loaded.”

Corvallis improved to 9-1. Withnell Dodge was 9-1 heading into a game Tuesday against Springfield. Results from that contest were not available by deadline this morning.

“I have a lot of respect for Corvallis,” Johnson said. “They do it the right way.”

The Sandblasters play both Richey’s Market and Withnell Dodge twice more, but even if they were able to win out, they would still need a lot of help to finish in the top two and advance to the state tournament.

“We’re probably out of it,” Johnson said of the playoff race. “We’ve got to keep grinding it out.”

Richey’s Market 7, Three Rivers 0

Richey’s Market    000    115    000    —    7    8    0

Three Rivers    000    000    000    —    0    6    2

Aaron Corwin and Chase Sanders; Bryce Weidman and Zach Laxague. 2B—RM: Nathan Williams, Tregg Smith; TR: Matt Fritz. HR—RM: Thomas McCarthy 2, Jake Likewise.