ROSEBURG – It took until the final day of the regular season, but the Roseburg baseball team finally secured an automatic berth in the OSAA state playoffs with a sweep of the visiting Willamette Wolverines on Saturday at Legion Field.

Senior Will Reddekopp went 3-for-4 with three RBI in game one and pitched 6 1/3 innings to earn the win as the Indians were victorious 6-3. Freshman Zack Mandera tossed a complete game and allowed just two earned runs in the night cap and Roseburg defeated Willamette 10-3 in game two.

Roseburg took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of game one on a pair of singles by Zack Watkins and Reddekopp. Willamette scratched its way back with runs in the second and third to tie the game 2-2. The Indians retook the lead in the home half of the third, but Willamette scored again in the fourth to tie the score at 3-3.

Back-to-back doubles to lead off the bottom half of the fifth inning put Roseburg back in front for good. Senior Grant Ronk started the inning with a deep hit to left field. Sophomore Brendan Ibarra came in to run for Ronk and scored not-long after on the extra base hit by Reddekopp.

The Indians extended their lead with two more runs in the sixth inning, giving the pitching staff a three-run advantage to work with. Reddekopp pitched into the seventh inning, but senior Chris Stone took over with one out and two runners on base. Stone earned the save with back-to-back strike outs against the only to hitters he faced.

In game two, Willamette jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning. A leadoff double by Matt Hubbs was followed by a single to left field by Colby Curtis. Hubbs scored, but the run was unearned against starter Zack Mandera. Left fielder Cam Lierman bobbled the ball, which allowed Hubbs to cross home.

The score remained 1-0 until the fourth, when Roseburg took advantage of the Willamette pitching staff’s inability to throw strikes. The first five Roseburg batters reached base in the fourth inning by either walks or hit by pitch. The Indians had eight consecutive hitters reach base and six of them scored to put Roseburg up 6-1. The Willamette pitchers gave up just one hit against 10 Roseburg hitters in the inning, but the walks, hit batters, and one error did the damage.

Willamette narrowed the lead on a two-run home run by Tyler Prescott in the fifth inning, but those were the last runs the Wolverines would score against Mandera. The freshman went on to retire the Wolverines in order in the sixth and seventh inning to earn the win. Mandera finished the day with no walks and five strike outs.

The Indians added four runs in the sixth for good measure. The win was the first time Roseburg has reached double-digit runs since an 11-1 win against South Eugene on April 9.

The win in game one snapped a four-game losing streak for the Indians and the back-to-back wins are the first for Roseburg since they swept a doubleheader against Thurston on April 16. It’s the first series win against a conference opponent for the Indians in nearly a month.

With the wins, Roseburg, South Medford, and South Eugene all finished with 10-11 records in Southwest Conference play. The tiebreaker scenario puts South Medford in third place, Roseburg in fourth, and South Eugene in fifth. As the fourth place team, Roseburg receives an automatic berth in the first round of the state playoffs. Sheldon, North Medford, and South Medford also received the auto-bids.

South Eugene received one of four at-large automatic berths in the playoffs due to their OSAA ranking. The rest of the teams in the Southwest Conference (Thurston, South Eugene, and Grants Pass) all made it into the play-in round due to their rankings and will attempt to make the state playoffs with a win next week.

Roseburg has a little more than a week off before the first round of the state playoffs begin on Monday, May 23. The Indians are ranked 23rd by the OSAA and will travel for a first round match-up. The brackets will not be officially announced until after the play-in round, but early expectations are that the Indians will face West Salem, the champions of the Greater Valley Conference.

SCORES BY INN.  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – R H E
WILLAMETTE       0 1 1 1 0 0 0 – 3 5 5
ROSEBURG         2 0 1 0 1 2 X – 6 8 1
W: Will Reddekopp
L: Matt Hubbs
S: Chris Stone

SCORES BY INN.  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – R H E
WILLAMETTE       0 1 0 0 2 0 0 – 3 7 2
ROSEBURG         0 0 0 6 0 4 X – 10 6 5
W: Zack Mandera
L: David Rosebrook

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