EUGENE — The Roseburg High School baseball team went to Eugene on Monday to finish the regular season and the mission was straightforward — win twice against the Sheldon Irish to claim the Southwest Conference title.
While the task might have been easy to understand, accomplishing the goal proved to be anything but.
Taylor Langworthy pitched Sheldon past the Indians for a 5-2 win in the opener of the league doubleheader, ending Roseburg’s hopes of the conference crown, but the Tribe bounced back to earn an 8-3 win in the nightcap to secure a second place finish ahead of the Irish.
“We didn’t get what we wanted to have here today, but we got what we had to have,” Roseburg coach Troy Thompson said. “Great job by our guys staying with it through 14 innings and getting the last game.”
South Medford, Roseburg and Sheldon received the three automatic berths in the Class 6A state playoffs with their first, second and third place finishes in the conference standings, respectively.
The teams will wait to find out their first round opponents once the OSAA power rankings freeze on Thursday night.
Sheldon (13-11, 9-6 SWC) started the scoring in Game 1 with a three-spot in the third inning against Roseburg starter Dominic Tatone.
A leadoff walk and back-to-back doubles by Dom Graziano and Cade Welch put up two runs and Brody Spurlock stretched the lead to 3-0 with a sacrifice fly.
The Irish added another run off Tatone in the fifth. The senior left-hander allowed four runs on seven hits over five innings, while striking out eight and walking two.
Trailing by four in the sixth inning, Roseburg (17-8, 11-4) cut the deficit in half on a RBI single by Evan Corbin and a sacrifice fly by Carson Dunn. The two runs were the only allowed by Langworthy, who scattered five hits over 6 2/3 innings.
Nolan Miller struck out the final Roseburg batter to earn the save. The final out was made with the game-tying run at bat.
Sheldon’s win in the opener set up a winner-take-all battle for second place in the Southwest Conference standings.
Silas Kincaid hit a double in the first inning to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Kincaid finished the day with four hits, including a solo home run in the fourth inning of Game 2.
Sheldon tied the game in the bottom of the first, but Roseburg quickly regained the edge in the second inning thanks to a two-run homer from Dunn.
“I’d been waiting, been hitting the wall, a bunch of doubles,” Dunn said. “So, it felt good to finally get into one there.”
Roseburg added a run on an error and led 4-1 after two innings. That would be enough offense for starter Austin Takahashi.
The junior allowed just one run on four hits over the first five innings. He shutdown the Irish while Roseburg continued to stretch the lead.
Sheldon trailed 6-1 going to the home half of the sixth. A two-run blast by Spurlock cut the Roseburg advantage in half, but Takahashi finished the frame with back-to-back punchouts to end his day on the mound.
“This was big momentum for us,” said Takahashi, who struckout eight batters on the way to his seventh win of the season. “I’m glad we could end this on a win going into the postseason.”
Roseburg added two more insurance runs in the seventh inning and Evan Corbin closed out the regular season with a scoreless inning in relief to secure the win for the Tribe.
Up next, the first round of the state playoffs are scheduled to begin on Monday. Thompson says it’s an exciting time of year, when your season can be over in an instant.
“With that single-elimination format, every game is a big game,” the coach said. “So we can’t look any further than the final rankings here at the end of the week and who our opponent will be come Monday. We’re anxious for that and we’re looking forward to that and we’ll have our usual week of practice and put ourselves in position on Monday to hopefully come out and play well and get the result we have to have.”
Roseburg is expected to have a home game. Game time and opponent will likely be announced later this week.
First Game
Roseburg;000;002;0;—;2;5;1
Sheldon;003;011;X;—;5;8;3
Tatone, White (6) and Hubbard; Langworthy, Miller (7) and Spurlock. W — Langworthy. L — Tatone (2-3). SV — Miller. 2B — Kincaid (R), Graziano (S), Welch (S). HR — E. Peterson (S).
Second Game
Roseburg;130;101;2;—;8;12;0
Sheldon;100;002;0;—;3;7;1
Takahashi, Corbin (7) and Burke; Welch, Miller (3), Smith (7) and Spurlock. W — Takahashi (7-1). L — Welch. 2B — Takahashi (R), Kincaid (R), Tatone (R), Dunn (R), Graziano (S). HR — Kincaid (R), Dunn (R), Spurlock (S).
