Linn-Benton Sweeps Visiting Clackamas

ALBANY, Ore. - The Linn-Benton baseball team continues to find different ways to win as they took two games from the Clackamas Community College Cougars. The home team was victorious 1-0 in the first contest and held on for an 11-9 win in game two, both nine inning games.

Game 1:

The Roadrunners (15-3-1, 11-3 NWAC South) pitching staff was able to stifle their opponents. Starter Connor Mendez went seven innings scattering just two hits while striking out seven batters. Seth Dreeszen came in for two innings of relief in which he allowed no runs, no hits and struck out one.

While the pitching was able to keep Clackamas (6-8, 6-8 NWAC South) at bay, the Roadrunners offense struggled to get on track. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning tied at 0-0 Chanz Flores earned a walk, and Landon Lea came in to pinch run. Andrew Demianew was able to advance Lea to second base on a ground out and then Kolten Lindstrom was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second base.

Eli Rolfe drew a walk to load the bases. Chase Logan stepped to the plate and laid down a picture perfect sacrifice bunt towards first base that allowed Lea to score and give the Roadrunners a walk off win. 

Game 2:

The second game featured a strong pitching effort from Jake Von Lubken who went five innings allowing just three hits and striking out six. But this time around the home team would score early and often.

Linn-Benton scored three runs in the second inning thanks to a Rolfe sacrifice fly that scored Jake Dodge, a Jake Holmes triple that scored Aiden Hazen and a Bryant Starr  single got Holmes across the plate to secure a 3-0 lead.

The fourth inning would see the home team score three more runs. Jackson Fera hit a triple that scored Starr, Demianew hit a single then score Fera and Hazen would single to score Dodge and double the lead to 6-0.

The Roadrunners would tally five more runs in the fifth inning to take an 11-0 lead but Clackamas battled back, scoring one run in the sixth, four more in the seventh and four more in the eighth inning but could not score in the final inning to fall 11-9.

Linn-Benton is scheduled to play a doubleheader at Clackamas this Saturday, March 29 at 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. The first game is scheduled for nine innings and the second for seven innings.