The reigning NWAC champions continue to roll through their schedule after a successful start to the 2025 season.
The Linn-Benton baseball team is currently one of two remaining NWAC schools that are undefeated after starting the season 10-0-1 through 11 games.
The Roadrunners kicked off the year with home matches against Clark, Mt. Hood, Clackamas, and Southwestern Oregon and a pair of road games against Lane.
The season officially started on Feb. 18 with a doubleheader against Clark. Facing off against one of last year’s playoff teams, the Roadrunners had quite the challenge to open up the season. After Clark took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of game one, Linn-Benton battled back with five runs in the next two innings to retake the lead. The Roadrunners would eventually hold on to win 5-3 but would run into an even more difficult spot in game two.
After a scoreless first inning, Clark put up four runs in the top of the second inning to race out to a hefty 4-0 advantage. However, the Roadrunners would come out swinging in the next two innings and piled on to the scoreboard themselves, scoring three runs in both the third and fourth innings to take a 6-4 lead.
The lead would only last two innings, as the Penguins responded to another Linn-Benton run by scoring runs in the fifth and sixth innings to tie the game at 7-7. In the bottom of the sixth, Linn-Benton’s Bryant Starr would come up clutch, capping off a three-hit performance by hitting a single to bring in Nick Biagi for the game-winning run.
The Roadrunners wound up winning 8-7, capping off the opening doubleheader of the season in chaotic fashion.
“It was kind of a weird game,” said outfielder Kolten Lindstrom, “there was a lot of good things, but there was also a lot of mistakes and I just know we’ll clean those up.”
A few days later, the Roadrunners would find more chaos in their next series against Mt. Hood. Linn-Benton and Mt. Hood played four games between Feb. 21 and Feb. 22, with game one marked as a non-counting exhibition game due to a referee shortage. Linn-Benton picked up a 3-1 win in game two before a dominant pitching performance would give them the third game in the series.
Pitchers Brody McMullen and Wyatt Connally combined to pitch nine strikeouts while allowing just two hits across nine innings, giving the Roadrunners a defensive 2-0 victory. However, the series would come to a dissatisfying conclusion, as inclement weather forced game four to be called with the score at 2-2, giving both the St. Bernards and the Roadrunners a tie on their records.
On Feb. 27, in a doubleheader against Clackamas, Linn-Benton’s pitching continued to dominate the opposition. Pitchers Connor Mendez and Noah Dewey combined for nine strikeouts through nine innings while only allowing three hits to give the Roadrunners a 3-0 win in game one. In game two, Connor Boyd secured the team’s first walk-off win of the season after hitting a double to left in the bottom of the seventh to bring in Starr for the winning run.
Since the start of March, the Roadrunners have worked through their conference schedule with doubleheaders against Southwestern Oregon and Lane. Linn-Benton picked up 4-2 and 11-8 wins against Southwestern before winning their first away matches of the season, 7-4 and 9-6 against Lane.
Now sitting alone atop the NWAC South regional standings with a conference record of 6-0, the defending champs are turning heads, with many backing them to repeat. In the NWAC’s 2025 Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll, Linn-Benton earned the top spot with 158 points and 11 first-place votes from fellow NWAC coaches. Despite the heavy hype surrounding the team, many players on Linn-Benton’s roster acknowledge that they still have a long way to go.
“We haven’t done anything yet, so we’re just gonna put the work in and just play the best baseball we can, that’s pretty much it.” said Lindstrom
For Linn-Benton’s next match, the Roadrunners take on Mt. Hood again in another doubleheader at home. The doubleheader is tonight, March 13, with game one starting at 1 p.m. and game two starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
