Prep Baseball: Roseburg suffers first SWC setback in 3-1 loss to Sheldon

EUGENE — The Roseburg Indians had a seven-game winning streak come to an end and saw their undefeated Southwest Conference record erased in a 3-1 loss to the Sheldon Irish Tuesday at Lane Community College.

It was a nip-and-tuck game that never truly saw the momentum swing too far in one direction.

Sheldon (9-7, 6-4 SWC) never trailed in the matchup, but had to hold off Roseburg (10-4, 6-1) which had several chances to snatch the lead.

Starting pitching set the tone for the contest. Roseburg’s Danner Wertz struck out eight over six innings, while Sheldon’s Cam Thomas cut down six batters and earned a complete-game victory.

“Great job by Danner Wertz to scatter their hits and give us a chance,” Roseburg coach Troy Thompson said. “He gave us a chance offensively to get back in it, but we just could never string anything together against Cam Thomas, who threw well today.”

Small moments proved to be big in the end. The Irish took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a clutch hit by the nine-hole hitter Beau Travis.

There were two outs and Travis was behind in the count 0-2, but he belted a triple to the right-center field alley to drive in a pair of runs.

The Indians cut the deficit in half in the fourth after a dropped third strike got Amos Bowers on base. Three batters later Bowers scored on an infield single by AJ Black that just got Thomas on the mound.

Roseburg had the game-tying run in scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings, but the clutch hit eluded the Indians. A bloop single to shallow left field added an insurance run for the Irish in the sixth.

“In tight games and good ballgames like that, the difference is going to be clutch hitting with two outs and a couple of strikes and, to Sheldon’s credit, they did that today,” Thompson said.

No one for Roseburg had more than one hit. Black and Paxton Burke were the only RHS players to reach base more than once.

Chase Colling was 3-for-3 to lead Sheldon offensively. Travis finished the game 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Chad Turner also had two hits and more importantly made a number of big catches in center field.

Sheldon will visit Roseburg on Saturday to finish out the three-game conference series. The Indians and Irish will play a doubleheader starting at noon at Champion Car Wash Field.

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Wertz and Bowers; Thomas and Colling. W — Thomas. L — Wertz (4-2). 2B — Turner (S), Korba (R). 3B — Travis (S).