Oregon Tech's Taylor Schmidt Hits Walk-Off Home-run in Sweep of EOU (Photo by Kelly Caleb)
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – A five-run fifth inning lifted the Owls to a 9-1 victory over Eastern Oregon University, via the mercy rule, in today’s Cascade Collegiate Conference softball opener, in game 2, Oregon Tech’s Taylor Schmidt hit a walk off homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Hustlin’ Owls past EOU 8-7 to earn the sweep. Oregon Tech improved to 28-9 on the season and 12-4 in the conference standings. Eastern Oregon fell to 1-13 in CCC play and 10-21overall.
Game 1 - With two outs and the home team leading 4-1, Tech’s Alyssa Davis ignited the Owl fifth inning rally with a double. Melissa Logan next singled in Davis, with the Owls loading the bases on a hit batter and walk. Danielle Sayres drove in Davis, while the Owls scored on an EOU error and ended the game, 9-1, on a two run RBI single by Shauna Collins.
Eastern quickly got to Tech starter Taylor Schmidt with the Mountaineers scoring a run in their first at-bat of the day. After giving up the RBI single to Martell, Schmidt would allow just one more single over the next four innings to move to 17-3 with the win. With no further run support, EOU’s Anderson fell to 4-7 in the circle.
After trailing 1-0, Oregon Tech would notch a pair of runs in both the first and third innings to lead by three. A sacrifice fly in the first inning by Davis brought home Plummer, who earlier doubled, giving the Owls a 2-1 advantage. Plummer next made it 4-1 after connecting for her 12
th homerun of the season in the bottom of the third. Tech would take the opener after the five run fifth for the final 9-1 margin.
Shauna Collins, Jess Plummer, Alyssa Davis and Melissa Logan came away with two hits each in game 1 with Collins and Plummer driving in two runs. Plummer added a homerun and double, with Davis adding another double in the victory for the Owls.
Game 2 – Oregon Tech took a 7-2 lead into the top of the seventh inning after scoring 4-runs in the bottom of the 6
th, Eastern then erupted for 5-runs on 5-hits to tie the game at 7-7 before Tech’s Schmidt ended the game with a towering homerun to deep left field to give OIT the Win.
After each team scored a one run in the first inning, it was all zeros’ until the fifth inning. After two out in the top of the fifth, Cassie Wendt gave the Mountaineers a 2-1 lead with a no-doubt homerun to deep centerfield her 10
th of the season.
Tech answered quickly as McKenzie Shrum doubled to begin the bottom of the fifth. After a passed ball moved Shrum over to third, Sara Coates singled to score Shrum to tie the game at 2. Another pass ball would move pinch runner Ashley Sfetku over to second pass. Melissa Logan would then single to left to score the speedy Sfetku to give OIT the 3-2 lead.
Oregon Tech would add to the lead in the bottom of the sixth scoring 4-runs on 5-hits highlighted by a Jess Plummer 2-run double to give OIT a 7-2 lead.
Eastern Oregon put on their rally hats, scoring 5-runs on 5-hits, highlighted by a Wendt 2-run double to tie the game at 7. In the inning EOU took advantage of 2-walks, 1-hit batter and a wild pitch
Tech’s Schmidt would end the quickly, as she hammered the first pitch she saw over the left field wall to give OIT the walk-off 8-7 win.
Schmidt also picked up the win in the circle to improve to 18-3 on the season.
Tailor Snow was pinned with the loss for EOU to fall to 3-6.
Shauna Collins, McKenzie Schrum, Jess Plummer, Sara Coates and Alyssa Davis all had two hits each in the game to lead the Oregon Tech offense.
Wendt, Katie Martell, and Sarah Jackson each had two hits for Eastern Oregon.
Oregon Tech will stay home to face College of Idaho on Saturday with Eastern traveling over to Ashland to play Southern Oregon. Both double-headers are scheduled to start at 11:00 am.