LBCC walks off two wins, UCC still earns home Super Regional
ALBANY — The NWAC baseball regular season came to an end with a pair of losses for the Umpqua Riverhawks on Saturday, but they still earned the right to host a Super Regional later this week as the second place team in the South Region standings.
Umpqua (24-22, 21-15 South) lost two one-run ball games against South Region champion Linn-Benton (20-10-1, 26-10) at Dick McLain Field. The Roadrunners came through with a 4-3 win in 13 innings to begin the final doubleheader of the regular season and then walked off with a 5-4 win in the nightcap to earn a split in the season series with the Riverhawks.
LBCC had already locked up the South Region title and the automatic berth into the NWAC Tournament that comes with being a division champ. Umpqua was playing to secure a second place finish and the chance to host a three-team Super Regional. The Riverhawks benefited from Southwestern Oregon losing a pair of games to Chemeketa on Saturday, which kept UCC in second place.
Umpqua will host the third place team from the West Region, Clark (19-21, 12-12 West), and the fourth place team from the East, Yakima Valley (24-24, 15-13 East), in a Super Regional tournament at Champion Car Wash Field in Roseburg. Clark and Yakima Valley play an elimination game at 1 p.m. Thursday and the winner faces UCC in a best-of-three series that begins around 4 p.m. Thursday. The winner of that series advances to the conference championship tournament in Longview, Washington.
UCC led 3-0 after four innings in Game 1. Tristan Schaefer scored in the first inning on a double by Zane Bidwell and scored again in the third inning on a single by Noah Cox. Schaefer then drove in a run with a single in the fourth.
Linn-Benton rallied to tie the game in the seventh inning. Roseburg High School graduate Brooks Avery plated a run by reaching on an error and scored on a single by Kolten Lindstrom to knot up the score.
Neither side managed to break up the tie game for the next five innings. Relief pitchers Hunter Robinson and Noah Dewey managed to quiet the bats.
Hunter Robinson was stellar out of the bullpen in relief of his brother Logan Robinson, who pitched the first 6 2/3 innings. Hunter Robinson didn’t allow a hit over 5 1/3 innings and finished with four strikeouts.
The Roadrunners finally ended the game in the 13th inning on a one-out single by Andrew Demianew off of UCC reliever Teague Van Dyke. Lindstrom scored the winning-run after reaching on a leadoff single and moving into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt.
Schaefer was 3-for-6 in the game for Umpqua. Aidan O’Malley and Carson Dunn contributed two hits each.
Lindstrom was 3-for-5 with two RBIs for LBCC.
Porter Strother had a two-out triple to score Aiden Metzker and give Umpqua a 1-0 lead in Game 2, but Linn-Benton responded with a run to tie the game in the home half of the opening frame.
The Roadrunners built a 4-1 lead with a trio of runs in the third inning off of starter AJ Victoravich. Landon Lea drove in a pair on a single and scored on a double by Nick Biagi.
UCC still had some gas left in the tank and tied the game with three runs in the sixth. Ryland Heckman and Ryson Wa’alani both had RBI singles and the Riverhawks tied the game on an error.
A walk in the bottom of the seventh got the go-ahead runner on base for LBCC. A sacrifice bunt moved the winning run into scoring position and Jackson Fera gave the Roadrunners their second walk off victory of the night with a single to left field off of reliever Brody Moore.
Strother led UCC with two hits in the game. Linn-Benton had six players with a hit, three of them for extra bases.
Linn-Benton will be out of action until the conference championship tournament begins May 22 at Lower Columbia College. The Roadrunners are the defending conference champs and have won two titles in the past three seasons.
First Game
UCC 101 100 000 000 0 — 3 10 2
LBCC 000 010 200 000 1 — 4 5 2
L. Robinson, H. Robinson (7), Van Dyke (13) and Robbins; McMullen, Rivers (4), Dewey (7), Corey (12) and Logan, Caron. W — Corey (1-0). L — Van Dyke (1-7). 2B — O’Malley (UCC), Bidwell (UCC).
Second Game
UCC 100 003 0 — 4 5 2
LBCC 103 000 1 — 5 6 1
Victoravich, Moore (7) and Strother; Richardson, Dreeszen (6) and Hazen. W — Dreeszen (1-1). L — Moore (0-2). 2B — Vance (UCC), Fera (LBCC), Biagi (LBCC). 3B — Strother (UCC), Holmes (UCC).
