Oregon Tech Splits with No. 7 LC-State (0-10 gm 1, 12-10 gm2)

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Klamath Falls, Ore. – The Oregon Tech men's baseball team splits on day two with No. 7 Lewis-Clark State College, as Ryan Riepma clubbed a bases loaded walk-off grand slam in bottom of the ninth lifting Oregon Tech (22-27, 11-17 NAIAW) past LCSC (33-9, 23-5 NAIAW) 12-10 in game two of a doubleheader. The win for OIT snapped a 33 game losing streak to LCSC dating back to 2012.

Game 1
Lewis-Clark State College Warriors began the day by shutting out the Oregon Tech Owls on the road. Tossing all nine innings, Rian Bassett, in his first full game on the mound, picked up the shutout win for LCSC with a score of 10-0. Bassett only allowed 5 runs, while striking out 4 batters on the day.
The bats were swinging for the Warriors, as they found 6 homeruns in the game. The visitors were led by Kasey Bailey with 3 RBIs, while Raymond Pedrina had 3 hits, scoring 2 runs with 1 RBI.
 
Game 2
The second game of the day provided much drama, as the fifth game of the series required each team to go a little deeper into their pitching staff.
LCSC started out the scoring with runs in the first and second innings, as Tech responded in the bottom of the second with a Micah Jio homerun, sending 3 runs across the plate to score. An additional run by Tech in the third inning put the home team up 4-2.

The Warriors battled back in the top of the fourth inning, with a double, homerun and single, all driving in 4 runs.

Each team scored 2 runs a piece in the sixth inning, as Micah Jio sent his second homerun of the day over the wall picking up 2 more RBIs.

Heading into the ninth inning, the score sat 9-7, after a few single runs scored in the seventh and eighth innings for each team. With 1 final run scoring for the visitors, Tech needed 3 runs to send the game into extra innings and 4 runs to win.

In Tech's final push to get back on top, a single run scored by Blake Wrotenbery gave some life to the Owls. With bases loaded and two outs, Ryan Riepma was given the chance to be the hero. Riepma seeing a fastball coming down the pipe, swung for the fence, connecting the entire barrel of the bat on the ball and sending a deep shot to left center field for a walk-off grand slam, ending the contest 12-10.

The win snaps a 31 game win streak the Warriors had over the Owls. Spencer Dahlke picks up his first win of the season. Jio carried the team with his first 2 homeruns of the season and driving in 5 RBIs, while Riepma hit his second homerun and first grand slam of the season.

The Oregon Tech Owls will end their season next weekend, as they take on UBC at Kiger Stadium in a double-header matchup on April 28 & 29.

Press release from Oregon Tech Sports Information, Mike Garrard - Director of Sports Information and Marketing

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