Roseburg baseball ends regular season with losses at North Medford

MEDFORD — The Roseburg High School baseball team wrapped up the regular season with a pair of losses against North Medford on Saturday at Jim McAbee Field, falling to a fourth place finish in the Southwest Conference.

The Indians continued a stretch of close games with the Black Tornado, but couldn’t overcome North Medford in 3-1 and 6-4 losses.

“I thought we got good pitching performances from Jake (Johnson) in Game 1 and Brevin (Harrison) held it together in Game 2 until the fourth,” Roseburg coach Troy Thompson said. “Unfortunately, offensively we couldn’t get anything going.”

Despite the losses and fourth place finish, Roseburg appears to be headed to the postseason with an at-large berth. The Class 6A state playoff bracket will be revealed on May 16 and the playoffs begin May 20.

Roseburg managed just two hits in the opener against North Medford starter Colton Morgan. The senior struck out four, walked one and hit two batters.

The best scoring chance for Roseburg came in the fifth inning. Trailing 2-0, Johnson drew a leadoff walk. Brayton Loomis took over as a courtesy runner for Johnson.

Harrison grounded out to third base for the first out. Loomis had headed for second on the pitch, taking away the chance at a double play, but the senior mistakenly thought he needed to return to first and was caught off the bag for the second out.

Morgan beaned Keegan Carpenter and then a balk put the Roseburg runner at second base. Carpenter scored on a single by Kash Richardson, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

If it hadn’t been for the base-running error, Roseburg would have tied the game on Richardson’s base hit.

North Medford stretched the lead back to two runs on a sacrifice fly by Morgan in the home half of the fifth.

Jake Johnson took the loss for the Indians, allowing just two earned runs on seven hits, with two walks and six strikeouts.

Roseburg overcame a 1-0 deficit with a pair of runs in the fourth inning in Game 2. Harrison plated both runs with a double.

The lead didn’t last long as North Medford retook the advantage with five runs in the bottom half of the frame. The Black Tornado started the inning with three consecutive hits, including a leadoff double by Kellen Willer.

The Indians scored runs in the sixth on a single by Kaden Austin and in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Johnson, but the Tribe stalled out with the game-tying run up to bat to end the game.

North Medford’s Dominic Daffron pitched the full game, allowing nine hits with two walks and one strikeout.

Harrison took the loss for Roseburg, allowing six runs on seven hits over four innings. He had four punch outs and no walks on his final stat line.

Austin was the only Roseburg player to have hits in both games. The junior was 3-for-5 with an RBI.

Frankie Rutigliano and Joey Newberg both had two hits in both games for North Medford.

First Game

Roseburg;000;010;0;—;1;2;2

N. Medford;020;010;X;—;3;7;1

Johnson and Burke; C. Morgan and Robbins. W — C. Morgan. L — Johnson (5-4). 2B — Rutigliano (NM), Robbins (NM).

Second Game

Roseburg;000;201;1;—;4;9;2

N. Medford;001;500;—;6;8;0

Harrison, St. Clair (5) and Burke; Daffron and Robbins. W — Daffron. L — Harrison (3-5). 2B — St. Clair (R), Harrison (R), Willer (NM). 3B — Rutigliano (NM).