LA GRANDE, Ore.— Oregon Tech (21-21, 16-12) swept Eastern Oregon (4-28, 4-24) in a road series Sunday that gives the Hustlin' Owls sole possession of 2nd place in the Cascade Conference regular season standings. Tech has a two game lead on Corban heading into next weekend's battle at Kiger Stadium. Up for grabs will be second place in the conference and the number two-seed heading into the CCC Championships at LC State in two weeks.
Following the game, HC
Jacob Garsez remarked, "We competed really well all series. It is exciting to watch our continued improvement. Looking forward to another week of quality practice leading into senior weekend."
Game Three: Oregon Tech 9 Eastern Oregon 1
For the 19th time this season, Oregon Tech grabbed a lead in the 1st inning, which is an absolutely incredible statistic.
Once again, Tech grabbed the early lead off of a
Dalton Daily solo home run, his 12th of the season.
The Hustlin' Owls got a lot of great outings on the mound this weekend, which was pivotal to their success in earning the sweep. With a 1-0 lead, Tech starter
Trask Telesmanich (pictured) dominated the first three innings with the small lead. Through the first three frames the Mountaineers were held without a hit.
Leading 1-0, the Owls extended their lead to 3-0 in the 4th.
Zack Stockton grabbed an RBI off of a fielder's choice, and
Jesse Dunham followed him up with an RBI double.
Telesmanich would continue to dominate as the next three frames he threw were all shutout as well. After Stockton hit a 2 RBI double in the 7th, Tech went ahead 5-0. The bottom half of the 7th would be Telesmanich's last and he sat down the Mountaineers in order. He'd exit the game throwing 7 scoreless innings, allowing only 3 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 8.
Tech would add 3 in the 8th, and 1 in the 9th, as they'd cruise to a 9-1 victory.
A highlight down the stretch aside from Telesmanich was a solo shot from Stockton in the 9th to complete a great day at the plate. Stockton led Tech at the plate going 2-4 with 4 RBIs, as the Hustlin' Owls moved 1 game away from a .500 record for the first time since February 21st.
Game Four: Oregon Tech 11 Eastern Oregon 1 (8 Innings)
Tech's
Dylan Grogan continued his strong streak of pitching, throwing another gem for the Hustlin' Owls in what was a great week of pitching. Grogan threw 6 innings, allowing only 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 10.
This weekend was a homecoming for Grogan as he grew up in Eastern Oregon, attending Stanfield HS and Blue Mountain Community College which lies just about an hour from La Grande. When asked how it felt to throw in such a familiar area, and how it feels to continue to string together good starts Grogan remarked, "It felt great to throw back in Eastern Oregon and having my family able to come watch! Our hitters are great, so we know as a pitching staff that if we give good outings then our hitters are going to come through for us."
With Grogan's strong outing, Tech did more than enough on the offensive end to have his back. The Hustlin' Owls racked up 20 hits in just 8 innings of work, as the game was called short due to mercy rule.
Leading 4-1 through 6, Tech added 4 in the 7th and 4 in the 8th to claim the 11-1 lead.
Tech ran the bases extremely well, and scored 3 times off of a wild pitch down the stretch while Stockton continued to thrive.
On Sunday, Stockton went 6-9, with 6 RBIs, going 4-5 in Game 4. Tech also had 3 players with 3 hits in Game 4, to seal the sweep.
OIT will return home next weekend when they host Corban University (19-25, 14-14) in a 4 game weekend series where the two will battle for the 2-seed in the upcoming CCC tournament.
