Shifting Focus: After Postponed Series With Clark, Roadrunner Baseball Looks Towards matchup With Lane
Deep black clouds and a sudden daylong downpour kept the LBCC Men’s Baseball team from competing against Clark in a four game, home and away series this past Friday and Saturday, with two of the games being moved to April 15. The Roadrunners lose the opportunity to face Clark before their important series with the Lane Titans (12-8 overall, 6-0 conference) and will have to carry the momentum built by their series sweep against the Southwestern Oregon Lakers.
Lane has had almost as equally of a successful season under their belt thus far. Their 12-8 record netted them three votes from the March 27 NWAC coaches poll, barely being left out of the top ten. LBCC has stayed in the rankings for a few weeks now, coming in at seventh in last weeks poll. Lane currently sits at first in conference standings in the south, sharing an undefeated conference record with none other than the Roadrunners, who are 14-5 overall and have a 4-0 record in conference. Lane has faced Southwestern Oregon and the Clackamas Cougars in the south division, beating them with great offense with wins such as 12-0 and 11-7. LBCC faced Clackamas earlier in the season, beating them twice in wins 16-1 and 13-3. While Lane holds the edge statistically, LBCC has had games postponed and the opportunity for more than four wins thus far was taken from them.
“After getting our games postponed this past week, our guys are itching to get back to playing. Should be a lot of fun playing a quality team like Lane” said head coach Andy Petersen.
This four game series between the two teams will break the tiebreaker for first and set a division leader, barring a two win series tie. Lane has been on an tear since the start of conference play, winning eight in a row and surging to 12-8 after a 4-8 record. The Titans currently have 90 runs in the year with a .264 batting average complimented by four total home runs. The Roadrunners themselves have been creating fireworks, with a six game win streak under their belt. LBCC currently has 162 runs on the season, which shows how effective Coach Petersens offense has performed in his first season.
Two teams with undefeated conference records and hefty win streaks meet on the diamond this Friday, and the match-up looks to be dazzling. Coach Petersen and his team has had a very successful season thus far, and the first year head coach has remained cool the whole way through.
“There was a lot of anticipation build up leading into the first game of the season, with not really knowing what to expect. One the team and I got that first game out of the way, it was back to playing baseball and having fun”, said Petersen.
The first pitch against Lane will be thrown at home at 2:00 PM on Friday, April 12.
Story by Cam Hanson
