PORTLAND, Ore. – The Western Oregon baseball team came within six outs of a four-game series sweep of the Concordia Cavaliers before CU overcame a four-run deficit to take game two and split the day Friday at Porter Park. The Wolves shutout the Cavs 6-0 in game one while Concordia secured a walk-off win, 5-4 in nine innings in the second game of the afternoon.
Western Oregon (25-11, 22-11 GNAC) ran their winning streak to seven games with the victory in the day's opener. It was the longest winning streak of the season for the Wolves and cemented the series win over Concordia (15-30, 13-23 GNAC).
Connor McCord (1-0) earned his first win of the year in his third consecutive start. The junior tossed 6.2 shutout innings, allowing three hits, two walks and striking out six. He has now thrown 14.0 consecutive innings over his last two appearances without allowing an earned run and just seven hits over that span. He has also gone at least six innings in all three of his starts this season.
The Wolves first struck in the top of the second inning, capitalizing on the power of multiple extra-base hits.
Joshua McIntyre led off the inning with a double to left and scored two batters later when
Jacob Maiben churned out a double of his own to give WOU a 1-0 lead.
That score would hold from the second all the way into the top of the ninth inning when Western tacked on five runs of insurance to put the game out of reach. They needed just three hits in the inning to plate five, taking advantage of another three walks issued by the CU pitching staff. In total, Concordia's four pitchers combined to walk 10.
Maiben led the offense with a 3-for-3 performance including a double, four RBI and a walk.
Griffey Halle went 2-for-4 with a run scored, two RBI and a walk.
Cam Walker recorded his first save of the season, pitching two scoreless innings to close the game while recording another two strikeouts.
It was Western Oregon's fifth shutout win of the season, four of which have come against Concordia. The Wolves' pitching staff combined for 23 consecutive shutout innings that ran from the close of game one through the beginning of the fourth game of the series.
Game two began looking as if it may also provide some offensive difficulties to the Cavaliers who quickly fell into a 4-0 hole to the Wolves.
McCord ripped a solo home run in the top of the third to solidify the four-run advantage early for WOU. It was his eighth home run of the season and the third straight series he's managed to hit one.
The WOU scoring was halted there as they went without a run over the closing six innings of the game.
Concordia got a pair back in both the fourth and the sixth innings, led by the three RBI of Eddie Vasquez on two hits.
Locked in a 4-4 tie heading to the bottom of the ninth inning, Concordia needed just one hit to get their first win over Western in their last nine meetings. Isaiah Hatch singled to right to score Damon Peters for the walk-off win.
JJ Sargeant went 2-for-3 to lead the Wolves' offense in game two, scoring a run and providing the only multi-hit performance of the game for WOU.
Dylan Diaz (3-3) tossed three shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out two to get the Cavs the win, snapping a five-game losing streak.
Western Oregon is now 1.5 games back of Montana State Billings for first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with four games left to play.
The Wolves close out the regular season next week with a trip to Saint Martin's for a four-game series May 3-4. First pitch in game one of a doubleheader next Friday is set for 1 p.m. at Saints Field.
