Photo Credit: Inside The Lines Photography
MEDFORD, Ore – The Klamath Falls Falcons (3-11; 9-22) picked up a win in the opener against the Medford Mustangs (9-5; 27-12-3), but bad weather and free baserunners derailed the Falcons in the nightcap.
GAME 1: KLAMATH FALLS 5, MEDFORD 3
The Falcons jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Jacoby Tacchini drove a double to left field to score Marcos Ulloa-Ford. Later in the inning, Tacchini scored on a passed ball. The Mustangs responded with a run in the bottom of the first when Jackson Rosenthal hit a sacrifice fly to score Easton Curtis.
Klamath Falls built on the lead in the third inning when P.J. Safford singled (extending his hitting streak to seven games) to knock in Max Price. Safford then scored on a sacrifice fly from Corbin Hamilton. Klamath Falls added some insurance in the top of the seventh when Safford scored on a wild pitch.
Kollin Tacchini pitched his first complete game of the season and allowed eight hits while only giving up one earned run and striking out three for the win. His counterpart, Dominic Daffron, pitched 6.2 innings allowing seven hits and four earned runs. He walked five batters and struck out seven.
Offensively for the Falcons, Price and Ulloa-Ford went 2-4 scoring one run each. Safford, Jacoby Tacchini, and Kollin Tacchini each had one hit. For Medford, Davis Carr was 3-3 and Kaleb Long was 2-3 with a run scored.
GAME 2: MEDFORD 12, KLAMATH FALLS 1
This game was delayed nearly an hour due to lighting and rain near Jim McAbee Field at North Medford High School. As the players took the field to start the game, a lightning strike was visible over the left field fence and thus began the weather delay.
Medford wasted no time out of the break, scoring two runs in the first inning, and adding eight more in the second. The Mustangs had five free base runners in those innings via base on balls or hit by pitch. Triston Wallace paced the Mustangs going 3-3 with two doubles, a triple, and six RBI. Davis Carr was 1-2 with an RBI triple, and Eli Havey also had a two-RBI triple.
Cole Stofflet picked up the win pitching a complete 5.0 innings in the mercy-rule win for Medford. He gave up two hits and one run. Chase Knecht started for Klamath Falls going 1.0 inning allowing five hits, eight runs, and walked two. Carson Pimley worked the final 3.0 innings allowing five hits and four runs.
P.J. Safford extended his season-best hitting streak to eight games with a 1-2 performance. Mark Carpenter picked up the other hit for the Falcons and Marcos Ulloa-Ford hit a sacrifice fly to earn an RBI in the fourth inning.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Falcons return home to Kiger Stadium to wrap up the season series with Medford on Wednesday night. It’s a double-header with the first pitch scheduled at 5:00 p.m. The Falcons have a non-league contest with the Hillsdale Merchants in Portland on Friday, then return to league play on Saturday in Roseburg.
Follow the Falcons with standings, schedules, and live streams at https://www.mybasin.com/falcons/.