Linn-Benton Split Two at SWOCC

COOS BAY, Ore. - The Linn-Benton baseball team headed south for a pair of road contests at Southwestern Oregon Community College and while they dropped the first contest they rallied for a decisive win in the second game. The Roadrunners (30-6, 22-6, NWAC South) dropped a high scoring first game 20-12, but defeated the Lakers (19-20, 11-17 NWAC South) 13-4 in game two, a seven inning contest.

Game 1: The Roadrunners scored four runs in the top of the second inning, as a Noah Scharer double scored Boston Caron and Mark Carpenter. Bryant Starr would then hit a sacrifice fly to score Seth Willy, then Scharer would cross the plate on an RBI double from Chanz Flores. Scharer would earn another RBI in the third inning on a double that scored Caron to make it 5-0.

The Lakers would answer with five runs in the bottom of the third inning, but the Roadrunners got an RBI single in the fourth inning from Aiden Hazen to score Flores and make it 6-5. In the fifth Scharer would score on a wild pitch, then Jackson Fera's double would score Starr and Flores making it 9-5. 

After a sixth inning Laker run, Fera hit an RBI single to make it 10-6 in the top of the seventh inning, but the home team scored 10 runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 16-10 lead over the visitors. Linn-Benton got two runs back in the eighth on a Scharer sacrifice fly to score Carpenter and an RBI double from Starr to score Caron making it 16-12, but the hosts tacked on four runs in the eighth to take the 20-12 win.

Game 2: In the second contest it was Linn-Benton again scoring first as they would put up three runs in the top of the third inning. Starr hit an RBI single to score Tyson McGrorty, then Flores drew a walk with the bases loaded to send Jack Lussier across the plate. Kellen Segel then hit a sacrifice fly to score Scharer for the 3-0 lead. The Lakers retook the lead in the bottom of the third as they scored four runs to make 4-3, but it was all Roadrunners for the rest of the contest.

An eight run fourth inning started with a Starr RBI single to score Landon Lea, followed by a Flores RBI single to score Lussier. Segel then sent two runners across the plate with a double that scored Scharer and Starr. Fera then got two RBIs of his own on a single that scored Flores and Segel. Fera then scored on a Laker defensive error and McGrorty finished the inning with an RBI single to score Nick Biagi and make it an 11-4 lead for the visitors.

The Roadrunners got two more insurance runs in the sixth thanks to a Lakers defensive error that allowed Fera to score, followed by a Lussier RBI single to score McGrorty.

Linn-Benton will enter their bye week and will next take the field in Eugene at Lane Community College. Those nine inning games on Wednesday, April 29 are slated for 1:00PM and 4:00PM start times.