Roadrunner Baseball Goes 2-0 on the Day to Sweep Chemeketa and Start 10-0 (Feb. 28)

 Neither win was in dominant or perfect fashion, but Linn-Benton snatched up a pair of victories regardless in their Feb. 27 doubleheader meetings with Chemeketa.

The Beaks took the first game 4-3 in a 13 inning dog fight (the game was scheduled for nine). They followed that up with a 2-1 walk off win in game two.

“I’m very happy with the guys today. Pitchers especially, happy with every guy that came in to compete, as a whole we threw a lot of strikes today,” Head Coach Andy Peterson said.

After hitting his first batter of the day, freshman Lane Simonsen caught his stride, striking out five batters and not allowing a hit through his first three innings until finally budging in the fourth.

He would finish the game with six strikeouts in 4 ⅔ innings of work.

After Simonsen, Dayne Castillo and Mark Carpenter worked together for 6 ⅓ innings before Kyle Miller stepped in for a scoreless 12th and 13th and snagged the win.

Boston Caron scored the winning run for the Roadrunners after cranking a double that was followed up by three BBs — Aiden Hazen was the man to work the game winning, bases loaded walk.

All of the Beak’s runs in the game were to take the lead, while all of the Storm’s runs came as answers to tie.

LB hit 7-39 as a team, which is a little modest for 13 innings, but it was enough to get the win. 

What is, however, highly impressive for a 13 inning game is the fact that the Roadrunners only struck out four times as a team (three of them came from Caron). Carrying statistics like this takes a lot of the “luck” out of edging out wins like this one and makes it more of a science.

“That’s just how this conference is. It’s going to be a lot of one-run games, a lot of extra inning games and we know that,” Peterson said.

Outside of leadoff man Liam Irish, who went 3-4 with a HBP, the Storm’s lineup was kept fairly quiet. 

The energy carried itself into game two.

Tied at 1-1 for what felt like an eternity, Linn-Benton took it in another walk off.

It ended when sophomore Bryant Starr smacked a ground ball to third base. The third baseman bobbled it — by the time he looked up he had an error credited to his name, Starr was standing on first and most importantly Jacob Lindstrom was stomping his foot down on home plate and yelling in jubilation.

“I knew he was going to throw me a changeup so I just tried to stay back as best I could, put the ball on the ground and good stuff will happen,” Starr said.

Talon McGrorty started the game on the mound for the Beaks, and worked nicely through five innings allowing the singular CCC run. McGrorty, a freshman, has benefitted greatly from his twin brother Tyson being behind the plate for all three of his starts so far. 

“I’ve been throwing to him for 14 years. So you know, he knows what I want, I know what he wants and it brings me a lot of confidence,” McGrorty said. Peterson admits there’s no plans for Talon to ever start with any other batterymate, as it simply makes too much sense to have the two paired up.

“My fastball was really working for me today. (Simonsen) was helping me through my bullpen on Tuesday and he just told me to ‘loosen it up’, that really helped me put more run on it today,” McGrorty explained.

After McGrorty, freshman Jake Johnson took over. Johnson has emerged (among others) as being sternly reliable out of the bullpen, which he showed again in his two innings of work in this one.

Nearly an hour separated the top of the sixth and seventh innings after the umpires called a delay to let the beaming sun clear out of the sky. 

“It was definitely a long delay, not something I’m used to. But I had a buddy helping me keep my arm warm and I kept my mindset good,” Johnson said.

Through the first couple weeks of the season, things are really gelling for LBCC from top to bottom. 

Pitching to the tune of a 2.9 team ERA, getting on base at a collective rate of .403 and committing only about an error and a half a game— the numbers are solid but they don’t tell the full story, one of a team playing with unrivaled amounts of situational confidence and togetherness. 

The biggest asset for any baseball team is the clutch gene. And thus far, the Roadrunners have certainly proven to be a team that rises to the occasion.

With their sweep of the Storm the Beaks have started 2-0 in NWAC South play and 10-0 overall.

“They’re all so young and usually it feels like you don’t figure guys out until late in the year but it’s been fun watching so much growth so quickly,” Peterson said.

The team will be back in action for another double header Sunday, March 1 against Umpqua. First pitches in those games are scheduled for noon and 3 p.m., respectively.