BILLINGS, Mont. --- Western Oregon baseball split a doubleheader on day one of their four-game series against Montana State Billings, dropping game one 17-7 before coming back to win the second game 8-5 Friday at Pirtz Field.
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In game two, the Wolves (12-8 overall, 6-4 GNAC) trailed the Yellowjackets (11-13, 5-5) 3-1 heading into the fifth before the WOU bats quickly came with an RBI single by
Jacob Maiben followed by a three-run home run to right field from
Curran Mitzel to give the Wolves a 5-3 advantage. Â
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The Wolves scored three more in the sixth, starting with a double from
John Oleson (who later stole third base and scored on a wild pitch) followed by a pair of RBI singles from
Zach Valdez and
Jacob Maiben. MSUB scored two in the bottom of the sixth before
Ryan Shipley came in to close the door, tossing two perfect innings to pick up his second save of the season.
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Oleson went 2-for-4 with a double, home run and an RBI, Mitzel went 1-for-3 with a home run and three RBI and
Jacob Maiben went 2-for-3 with two hits and two RBI.Â
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Chris Hardin picked up the win for the Wolves, going two innings in relief and allowing two runs and three hits with a strikeout and a walk.
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In game one, the Wolves fell behind the Yellowjackets 8-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning when WOU scored four runs off of a walk, an RBI single by
Justyn Herzog and another single by
AJ Cortese that scored two more to make it 8-4.Â
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MSUB scored five more in the fifth before a two-run double down the left-field line by
Jacob Maiben in the sixth for the Wolves to make it 13-6. But that's as close as the Wolves would get.Â
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The Wolves were led by Cortese, who went 2-for-4 and had two RBI. Herzog and Oleson both had a pair of hits.
Jacob Maiben went 1-for-4 with two RBIs.
Levi Cummings went 1-for-4 and scored a pair of runs.
Arturo Alvarez took the loss for the Wolves, pitching 3.2 innings and giving up eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits with three strikeouts and four walks.
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WOU and MSUB close out the four-game series Saturday starting at 11 a.m. (PT) with another doubleheader.
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