MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon baseball team earned their first shutout victory of the season on Saturday as a part of a doubleheader sweep over the Concordia Cavaliers 7-2, 11-0 at WOU Baseball Field.
Concordia (6-13, 4-6 GNAC) jumped out to an early lead in game one, picking up both of their runs in the first inning off
Alex Roth. After two walks in the first three batters, the Cavaliers came up with a pair of runs on one hit and a sacrifice to left to take a 2-0 lead.
Roth (3-0) settled in after the first, throwing eight complete innings of work and going seven consecutive shutout frames to finish off his day. He allowed two runs on four hits, walking two and striking out nine. It was the second time Roth has gone eight innings of work for Western Oregon (9-3, 7-3 GNAC), matching his career-high.
The Wolves got a majority of their scoring done in the fifth inning when they plated five runs on seven hits.
Jared McDonald doubled in two in the inning and was supported by six singles. It was one of two extra-base hits in the game for WOU.
Patrick Chung went 3-for-5 in game one, scoring two runs and picking up an RBI to improve his batting average to .312 on the season.
Game two belonged to
Austin Crowson who spun the first shutout of the year for Western Oregon, throwing seven innings, allowing four hits and striking out seven for the win. Crowson (3-0) has now thrown 13 consecutive innings of shutout baseball over his last two starts, striking out 18 in that time and allowing just one walk.
Western Oregon was able to score in five consecutive innings to start the game, picking up four runs in both the third and fifth.
WOU knocked Jeffrey Lusink (1-3) out after three innings in the start, surrendering seven runs on eight hits.
After finishing the first game of the doubleheader on the hill,
Connor McCord cranked out his second multi-hit game of the day, going a combined 4-for-6 with four runs, three RBI, a double and three walks.
The Wolves have scored seven runs or more in nine of the 12 games they have played this season.
Western Oregon and Concordia will conclude their weekend series with a doubleheader Sunday afternoon at WOU Baseball Field. First pitch March 17 in game one of the twin bill is set for 1 p.m. PDT.
