via Oregon Tech Athletic Communications
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Oregon Tech pitchers combined to strike out 26 batters on the day, as the Hustlin’ Owls opened a 16-game homestand with 10-4 and 9-1 victories over Eastern Oregon at Steen Sports Park.
Tim Williams tossed seven shutout innings in the opener, striking out a career-high nine batters, to earn his fourth win of the year, while Bronson Chapple made his home season debut, striking out seven in three impressive innings of relief in the Game 2 victory.
The Hustlin’ Owls (23-11, 14-9 CCC) never trailed on the day, posting a 6-0 lead in Game 1 and a 5-0 lead in Game 2 – with the pitching staff doing the rest of the work.
Tyler Horner got Tech on the board in Game 1, lacing an opposite-field RBI double off the left field wall, with Matthew Ortiz following with an RBI single and a Logan Macy RBI double – all part of a 3-run third inning outburst.
The Owls added two in the fourth – including a Horner sacrifice fly, while in the fifth, Ka’ala Tam singled, stole second and third, scoring on a Keanu Mizuta sacrifice fly.
The Mountaineers (9-25, 5-18) made things interesting in the eighth, plating a run on two hit-by-pitches, an infield single and a walk – before Mario Landeros cleared the bases with a 3-run double – cutting the deficit to 6-4. Kaden Melzer entered, getting a pop up and a strikeout to end the threat – before striking out the side in the ninth for his second save.
Tech put the game away in their eighth, as Dane Bradshaw hit a leadoff homer down the left field line and Julien Jones launched a mammoth 3-run blast to left to cap the scoring.
Korrey Siracusa was 3-for-4, with both Tam and Horner each posting two hits. Rogelio Gonzalez had two of EOU’s five hits in the game.
Tech tap-danced through the first two innings of Game 2, as starter Landon Cheney loaded the bases with no outs in the first before a strikeout and double-play ball got him out of the jam, with the righty stranding runners at 1st-and-3rd in the second.
OIT’s offense took over from there – as Ty Blakely lined a second inning 2-run single through a drawn-in infield and Siracusa gapped an RBI double to make it 3-0. An inning later, Bradshaw made it 5-0 with a 2-run double into the right-center gap.
Eastern got their lone run in the fourth on a Matt Carlson double, but Ortiz lined an RBI single in the fifth to make it 7-1, adding a 2-run double in the eighth close the scoring.
Cheney fanned six in five innings of work for his fourth win, before Chapple entered in the sixth – striking out the side on 10 pitches in the inning, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced.
Siracusa, Bradshaw, Ortiz and Patrick Barry all had two hits in the win for the Owls, with Carlson going 3-for-4 for EOU.
The two teams close out the series tomorrow with an 11 a.m. doubleheader.
