Roseburg High School baseball coach Troy Thompson will always tell you, it’s hard to win on the road in conference play. Yet, somehow Thompson’s team is making a habit of winning at Harry and David Field, home of the South Medford Panthers.

“Every road trip we take is a real road trip. You know, we’re on for about two hours getting here today and the challenge is always to get off the bus and get moving and get going,” said Thompson.

There was no slow start for Roseburg pitcher Evan Corbin on Thursday. The sophomore right hander dominated on the mound early and hung on down the stretch for a 2-1 win over South Medford in the semifinals of the  Southern Oregon Conference tournament.

The victory puts Roseburg (13-4) in the tournament championship game on Saturday against Grants Pass, which upset top-seed North Medford 7-4 on Thursday.

Garrett Zeimet, the lone senior for Roseburg, says his teammates stepped up in the big moment to get a crucial win.

“I think with the pressure we did better than we have all year,” said Zeimet, who was 1-for-3 in the game. He pointed to a 6-0 loss to South Medford on May 11 as a turning point for Roseburg and said the team “regrouped and we did some stuff and then we knew that we needed to come here and do what we needed to do.”

Roseburg has now won four straight games since getting shutout by South Medford, but Thursday’s contest was the biggest victory of the streak.

Corbin went toe-to-toe with Panthers’ starter Carson Joe. Both pitchers went the distance and allowed four hits.

Roseburg capitalized on back-to-back two-out walks issued by Joe in the second inning. Carson Dunn flared a line drive to right field that got caught up in the strong afternoon winds and carried away from Tosh Stumpenhaus for a two-run double that put Roseburg ahead 2-0.

Corbin kept South Medford (12-4) off the basepaths by not allowing a hit until the fourth inning. The sophomore retired the first nine hitters he faced, but gave up a leadoff single in the fourth to Cameron Sewell. Two batters later a double play ended the inning and kept Corbin at the minimum.

As the game wore on, Corbin started to show some fatigue and South Medford took advantage in the sixth inning. Stumpenhaus was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and later scored on a groundout by Jace Miller to cut the deficit in half.

The Panthers continued to put the pressure on in the sixth and loaded the bases, but Dominic Tatone preserved the lead by snagging a blistering line drive with a diving catch for the final out.

Corbin gave credit to the defense for his success on the mound. “It makes me so much more confident knowing I have the defense behind me. Like that play by Dom (Tatone) at first saved the game honestly if you think about it.”

South Medford had one last chance to tie or win the game in the seventh. Corbin hit another batter with one out to put the game-tying run on base, but the defense again backed him up.

Austin Takahashi started what nearly turned out to be the game-ending double play, but Sebastian Watson fumbled the ball as he tried to make the turn at second base. It didn’t matter, though, as Corbin induced a groundout to first by the next hitter to secure his sixth win of the season.

“You want to play in the last game, no matter where it’s at or who it’s against and have it mean something,” said Thompson. “In this shortened year, that’s what we have. I’m proud of the way our kids have played here in May… We want to play our best baseball in May and that was some of our best baseball there.”

Roseburg will host Grants Pass (8-9) for the tournament championship on Saturday at Champion Car Wash Field. Game time has not yet been set for the contest.

Roseburg;020;000;0;—;2;4;0

South Medford;000;001;0;—;1;4;0

Corbin and Hubbard. Joe and Thompson. W — Corbin (6-0). L — Joe (4-2). 2B — Dunn (R), Thompson (SM).