KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Oregon Tech ran their win streak to seven games and their home win streak to nine, as the Hustlin' Owls clinched a spot in the Cascade Conference baseball postseason tournament with 11-8 and 15-10 victories over Warner Pacific at Steen Sports Park.
 
OIT (27-11, 18-9 CCC) rode a 16-hit attack in the Game 1 win, while the club took advantage of 13 walks and three hit by pitches in a come-from-behind win in the afternoon tilt.
 
The Knights (7-25, 6-21) took a 2-0 lead in the opener – as Connor Hale doubled home a run in the first inning – one of four RBI in the game for the outfielder. Tech answered in the second, tying the game on a Keanu Mizuta 2-run blast. An inning later, the Owls would take the lead, getting back-to-back RBI doubles from Matthew Ortiz and Logan Macy, along with a Dane Bradshaw RBI single to cap a 4-run inning.
 
WPU would not go away, as a Trenton Lowe 3-run homer in the fourth cut the margin to 6-5, but Jones responded with a mammoth solo homer to center in the fourth and added a 2-run single in the fifth to make it 9-6. Hale got the Knights within a run in the seventh with a 2-run single, but a Tyler Horner RBI single followed by a Jones RBI double put the game out of reach.
 
Tim Williams earned his fifth win with six innings of work, allowing five runs on five hits, striking out five. Bronson Chapple struck out four in three innings of relief for his second save.
 
Jones finished 5-for-5 with four RBI, becoming just the second OIT player with multiple 5-hit games in a career. Ortiz, Mizuta, Bradshaw and Korrey Siracusa all had two hits for Tech, with Hale and Lowe recording two hits for WPU.
 
The visitors had command of Game 2 – recording 16 hits in the contest – but wildness on the mouth led to the Knights 13th-straight loss.
 
WPU scored twice in each of the first two innings before the Owls cut into the margin in the second on a Bradshaw RBI triple and a Patrick Barry RBI double.  Trailing 6-3 in the fifth, Tech got even – thanks to a 2-run Ortiz triple, with the senior scoring the tying run on a wild pitch.
 
An RBI single from Horner and a 2-run Ortiz double gave the Owls a 9-6 lead in the sixth, but WPU answered in the seventh, as a Hale RBI single keyed a 3-run rally to tie the score.
 
In the eighth, OIT capitalized on six walks, three hit-by-pitches, two wild pitches and a balk to score six runs without a hit to break the stalemate. Jones gave the Owls a lead with a sacrifice fly, followed by a balk with a runner at third to make it 11-9. Ka'ala Tam, Bradshaw and Barry each plated runs on walks, with Ty Blakely earning an RBI with a hit-by-pitch.
 
Alex Rodriguez pitched two-plus innings of scoreless relief, with Kaden Melzer working the final three innings for the win.
 
Ortiz was 2-for-4 with four RBI and both Barry and Bradshaw had two hits in the victory.
 
The two teams close out the series tomorrow with an 11 a.m. doubleheader.