KEIZER, Ore. – The Corban University Baseball team suffered a four-game setback this weekend on their home turf, as the visiting Hustlin' Owls of Oregon Tech tallied a whopping 55 runs over their weekend series in the Willamette Valley, including another double-digit total via their 15-6 victory earlier this afternoon in the weekend finale over the Warriors.
"Not our weekend of baseball unfortunately," shared Corban head coach Ryan Harris. "I saw some things that we can build off of, but ultimately we need to restructure some things this week and get back to playing Corban baseball."
Oregon Tech (12-4, 4-2) took no off day in the non-conference matchup with OIT, scoring four runs in the first two innings and another four in the fourth and fifth innings combined. Regardless of the OIT offense putting runs on the board, Warriors' (6-9, 2-4) redshirt junior catcher Joshua Miyazawa crushed a leadoff homer over the right field fence in the bottom of the first to represent Corban's only run scored over the first four innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Navy and Gold chipped away at the Tech lead with an RBI groundout by Miyazawa to score junior centerfielder Chase Elliott from third after he led the inning off with a double to centerfield and stole third on the ensuing at-bat.
Both offenses cooled off in the sixth and seventh innings before the Owls tacked on five runs in the eighth to nearly force their second run-rule victory over the Warriors. However, two-run double by senior rightfielder Noah Owens staved off the ten-run requirement to end this contest in eight innings and instead sent them to a ninth frame.
For the third time in this series, OIT third baseman Tyler Horner teed off and sent a homer out of Volcanoes Stadium in the top of the ninth to stretch the Owls' lead back to eleven runs, but Corban's sophomore leftfielder/first baseman Lucas Mertlich and senior leftfielder Fran Gross roped an RBI double and single, respectively, to conclude today's scoring in Keizer.
Warriors' junior starting pitcher Peyton Rickard accepted his first losing decision of the season after allowing the first four runs of the contest off three hits in 1.2 innings worked before giving way to the Corban bullpen. A four-man contingency out of the pen gave up another 11 runs on 11 hits and nine free passes.
Southpaw starter Carson Glavich went the required 5.0 innings needed to pick up his second win of the early season, as he saw two runs and three hits registered under his watch with two walks and a strikeout for OIT. Four different Owls all pitched an individual inning in relief, with righthander Caleb Randolph and lefthander Brian McClelland each pitching scoreless frames.
Owens and Mertlich were the only two Warriors with multi-hit performances today, with Owens netting two RBI to match Miyazawa for the team-high mark. Miyazawa, Rickard, Mertlich, Elliott, Gross, and junior shortstop Isaac Bateman all scored a single run for the Corban offense.
The top of the OIT lineup once again jumped all over the Corban pitching staff in the series finale today, as shortstop Patrick Barry, rightfielder Julien Jones, and Horner went a combined 9-for-15 with eight RBI and eight runs scored. Horner was the offensive player of the game with three hits, four RBI, and two runs scored from the three-hole in the Oregon Tech lineup.
The Warriors will play their first road games of the conference slate next weekend in Eugene, as they'll battle I-5 rival Bushnell University (12-3, 4-2) in a four-game set beginning on Friday, March 8th at 2pm.
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