ROSEBURG – The Roseburg baseball team saw its losing streak stretch to five games on Saturday with a narrow 4-3 loss to North Medford in game one of a doubleheader, but the Indians got a 6-0 win in game two end their losing skid.

North Medford scored three times in the top of the first inning of game one off of Roseburg starter Will Reddekopp. The Black Tornado drew a leadoff walk and followed with two singles to start the scoring. A RBI two-out single by Dakota Adams was the third hit of the inning and it put North Medford up 3-0.

Reddekopp settled in after the first inning to hold North Medford to just one more hit the rest of the contest. Meanwhile, the Indians’ offense finally scored in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Cam Lierman to cut the deficit to just two runs.

In the sixth inning, Roseburg got back-to-back singles from Grant Ronk and Reddekopp to get the game-tying run on base and an error by the Black Tornado helped make the score 3-2. The Indians tied it up on a sacrifice fly by Treven Jacks and the score was knotted at 3-3 going to the seventh.

North Medford got the go-ahead run on base on a throwing error by freshman third baseman Zack Mandera. The runner, Preston Johnson, later scored in the inning on a ground ball to shortstop Zack Watkins, who misplayed the ball and couldn’t make a throw to the plate.

Roseburg’s Chance Beecher got on base in the bottom of the seventh, but he was left stranded at third base as the Indians fell 4-3. Will Reddekopp took the loss after pitching all seven innings and only allowing four hits. The loss stretched Roseburg’s losing streak to five games.

The Indians bounced back in game two thanks to a spectacular pitching performance from Mandera. The freshman allowed just two hits and shutout the Black Tornado for the 6-0 victory.

A leadoff double and a single to start the fifth inning was all that North Medford could muster against Mandera. He also struck out four while walking just one batter. The Roseburg defense played clean baseball and didn’t record an error for the first time since an 11-1 win over South Eugene on April 9.

Roseburg’s offense recorded a hit in every inning except for the sixth and finished with nine hits total. The Indians pulled ahead 1-0 in the first inning on a Chris Stone single. They added another five runs in the third inning on four hits and one North Medford fielding error.

The win ended Roseburg’s longest losing streak of the season and kept the Indians in third place, one game behind North Medford for second. Roseburg also trails first place Sheldon by five games. The two teams meet on Tuesday in Roseburg.

SCORES BY INN. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – R H E
N. MEDFORD      3 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 4 4 2
ROSEBURG         0 0 0 1 0 2 0 – 3 8 3
W: Larson Kindreich
L: Will Reddekopp
S: Berry Hunt

SCORES BY INN. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – R H E
N. MEDFORD      0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 2 4
ROSEBURG         1 0 5 0 0 0 X – 6 9 0
W: Zack Mandera
L: Honus Kindreich

– Joey Keeran | joey@bciradio.com | @joeykeeran