Roadrunners March Past Saints

GRESHAM, Ore. - The Linn-Benton baseball team earned a pair of convincing victories on the road as they traveled to take on Mt. Hood Community College. The Roadrunners defeated the Saints 6-2 in the first game and 7-1 in the second contest.

Game 1: The Saints (10-8, 5-7 NWAC South) got on the board first, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. Linn-Benton (17-3, 9-3 NWAC South) responded with a Boston Caron RBI single in the top of the fourth inning to score Chanz Flores, followed by a Seth Willy sacrifice bunt to score Aiden Hazen and even the score at 2-2. The Roadrunners would take the lead in the seventh inning on a Jackson Fera solo homerun. Later in the inning Flores singled to score Noah Scharer and Bryant Starr to give the visitors a 5-2 advantage.

Linn-Benton would tack on one more run in the eighth inning on a Fera sacrifice fly to score Willy making it 6-2. Dayne Castillo earned the win with five strong innings in relief, scattering three hits and striking out four.

Game 2: The second contest, scheduled for seven innings, saw Linn-Benton strike first as Mark Carpenter reached base on a defensive error that allowed Tyson McGrorty to score in the top of the second inning. A Nick Biagi groundout would score Carpenter, followed by a Boston Caron single to score Fera and give the Roadrunners a 3-0 lead. Caron would then hit a solo homerun in the fourth inning, but the Saints would get a run back in the fourth inning to make it 4-1. 

It was all Roadrunners from there as Biagi would hit an RBI double in the fifth inning to score Carpenter. The sixth inning saw Flores score Willy on a sacrifice fly and in the seventh and final inning Caron would score on a wild pitch to help the visitors claim a 7-1 victory. Talon McGrorty earned the victory after four strong innings as the starter. Caiden Thomsen, Preston Daniels and Jake Johnson each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

Linn-Benton will next face the Storm of Chemeketa on Wednesday, March 25. That doubleheader, scheduled for two nine inning games, has been relocated to Linn-Benton Community College. First pitch will remain scheduled for 1:00PM and 4:00PM.