Roseburg baseball blanks South Medford 4-0 to finish season sweep
The Roseburg baseball team finished off a season sweep of the South Medford Panthers with a 4-0 win in a Southwest Conference game Tuesday at Bill Gray Legion Field at Champion Car Wash Field.
Roseburg’s Jake Johnson pitched all seven innings to earn his fifth win of the season. The junior right-hander allowed five hits, no walks and had five strikeouts.
“I think after my base hit in the third inning it really just locked me in a little bit more. My pitches were feeling like the best they have all season. I was really locating and getting outs,” said Johnson, who retired 10 straight batters from the third through sixth innings.
The Roseburg offense gave Johnson plenty of support, despite recording just four hits.
Dane St. Clair and Heath King both had RBI triples to help build a lead for the Tribe. St. Clair stretched the advantage to 2-0 in the third inning with a two-out hit that found the alley in right-center field and rolled all the way to the fence, scoring Paxton Burke.
St. Clair scored on a single by Johnson to put Roseburg (12-9, 8-5 SWC) in front 3-0.
King’s three-bagger came with two outs in the fourth inning. The left-handed batter dropped one just inside the right field foul line and it rolled to the outfield corner, giving plenty of time for Kash Richardson to score from second.
“That felt great,” King said. He added he’s been working with the team all season to fine tune his swing. The lefty’s stroke came through in a clutch moment and almost resulted in an inside-the-park home run.
“I was kind of hoping it would, but I know we needed to play smart baseball. It was smarter to stay at third base than get thrown out at home,” King said.
South Medford (5-15, 2-11) starter Jedidiah Robertson allowed all four runs to the Indians on four hits over four innings. He walked two, hit a batter and struck out three.
The Panthers had scoring chances in the second and sixth innings, but the Indians managed to turn them away.
Cooper Mitchell and Austin Glass had back-to-back singles in the second and a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position. Johnson responded by striking out the next two hitters.
Chance Ryan had a two-out double in the sixth that looked like it might drive in Tristan Mallari from first, but King had a quick throw from left field to Kaden Austin, who had an on-time relay to Burke at home plate where the catcher applied a tag for the final out of the inning.
“The defense was great. I’ve learned over the years to just pitch to outs here. It’s a big ballpark and people aren’t really going to crush it over the fence,” Johnson said.
The win was a nice bounce-back for Roseburg after the Indians suffered a 7-0 loss a week earlier at Grants Pass. With just five games left in the regular season, head coach Troy Thompson hopes this win can help the team build confidence for a postseason run.
“It’s always good to see hard work pay off,” Thompson said. “Hopefully today we have some players coming away with confidence going into our practices this week.”
Roseburg will play its final home games of the regular season on Saturday against Sheldon. The Indians and Irish start a doubleheader at noon at Champion Car Wash Field.
S. Medford;000;000;0;—;0;5;0
Roseburg;102;100;X;—;4;4;0
Robertson, Mallari (5) and Long; Johnson and Burke. W — Johnson (5-3). L — Robertson. 2B — Ryan (SM). 3B — St. Clair (R), King (R).
JV Score — South Medford 3, Roseburg 2.
