WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Back-to-back home runs from
Bryce Petrilla and
Julien Jones erased an Eastern Oregon lead in Game 2, helping Oregon Tech complete weekend sweep of the Mountaineers with 10-3 and 5-3 victories at Muir Sports Complex.
The Hustlin' Owls (17-9, 4-0 CCC) sit tied atop the Cascade Conference standings with College of Idaho following the first weekend of league action – with the two teams set to meet next weekend, tentatively at Steen Sports Park.
OIT trailed 3-1 after six innings of the nightcap, but rallied against the Mountaineers (1-19, 0-4) bullpen.
Tyler Horner reached on a one-out single and Petrilla tied the game with a long 2-run homer to center. Two pitches later, Jones golfed a ball out to left-center, giving Tech the lead.
Riley Cronin did the rest, retiring the final nine batters in order for his first win of the year.
Tech took a 1-0 lead in the second, as
Ka'ala Tam singled, stole second and scored on a
Dane Bradshaw single. However, EOU took the lead in the third on a Rogelio Gonzales home run – but the visitors proved to be too much.
Tam was 2-for-4 with three stolen bases in the win, with
Brendan Talonen getting a no-decision after striking out six in five innings of work.
The Owls never trailed in the opener – scoring two first inning runs and capped the game with an eighth inning outburst.
Korrey Siracusa and Horner singled to start the game – with Siracusa scoring on a Jones ground out and pinch-runner
Griffin Thissell scoring on a
Matthew Ortiz single.
Jones added a 2-run double in the fourth to extend the lead to 6-1, but the Mounties made it interesting, cutting the margin to 6-3 on a 2-run fifth inning double from Joey Freitas. Tech put the game out of reach in the eighth, as Petrilla cleared the bases with a double and Ortiz added an RBI single.
Cody Dubray fanned eight batters over four-plus innings, with
Ryan Poling tossing three-plus shutout innings of relief to earn the win. Ortiz was 3-for-4 with three RBI, Petrilla was 2-for-5 with three RBI, with Siracusa going 2-for-2 with four runs scored.
OIT extended their win streak against Eastern to 19 games, dating back to 2006.
