Late inning rally helps Saints sweep Clackamas doubleheader

Itching for action after rain washed away their weekend games, the Saints baseball team traveled to Oregon City Tuesday to sweep a doubleheader from the Clackamas Cougars.

After splitting a doubleheader with Chemeketa last week, MHCC was gearing up for games against the Lane Titans over the weekend. But April showers forced postponement of the games until Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Saints dominated Southern Region foe Clackamas. Sophomore Jon Bjorklund threw nine strong innings in the first game, allowing only two earned runs on five hits, striking out five Cougar batters in the process.

Making only four hits, the Saints capitalized on three Clackamas errors in the 5-2 victory.  The Cougars scored their only two runs in the home half of the ninth inning before Bjorklund closed the door.

In the back half of the double dip, Clackamas took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. MHCC’s offense was stifled through the first five innings but touched up the Clackamas starter, freshman Zach Carter, for three runs in the top of the sixth before knocking him out.

The Cougar reliever, freshman Satoru Kusama, gave up the fourth run of the inning before he was run out of the ball game, forcing Clackamas to dig deeper into their bullpen by bringing in a third freshman arm, Kyle Diaz, to stop the bleeding. Clackamas added another run to bring themselves within a manageable two-run deficit heading in the final frame.

But a six-run onslaught by the Saints offense ran Diaz out of the game. Sophomores Ryan Degner and Marcus Blackmon and freshman Logan Grindy each drove in two runs in MHCC’s 10-2 victory.

Sophomore Brandon Williams started the game for the Saints, providing six innings of work and striking out seven batters. Freshman right-handed reliever Zane Bambusch struck out two Cougar hitters during his only inning of work Tuesday night.

MHCC is set to host the Linn-Benton Roadrunners for two games Saturday in a match-up featuring the top two squads from the Southern Region of the NWAACC.

Results from Thursday’s doubleheader against Lane were unavailable at press time.