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Timberjacks waste chance to pull ahead SALEM -- The Southern Oregon Timberjacks blew a golden opportunity to increase their lead in the Southern Division of the Northwest League Saturday. With Portland losing to last-place Eugene, the Timberjacks could have opened a 1 game lead on Portland by beating Salem-Keizer Saturday night. Instead, Southern Oregon blew several leads and eventually lost, 10-9, on a Micah Holst ninth-inning home run. Jeremy Luster jump-started the Volcanoes' offense early with a first-inning solo home run to right field, staking Salem-Keizer to a 1-0 lead. The Timberjacks answered with four runs of their own in the top half of the second. Kirk Asche started things off with a one-out single and moved to third following a base-hit by Jorge Soto and a walk to Jeremy Schied. Catcher Gerald Laird got Southern Oregon on the board in the next at-bat with a two-run double to right. Miguel Declet capped the scoring with another double bringing home the final two runs of the inning. The Volcanoes came back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning behind Holst's RBI double and a Ryan Luther run-scoring ground out. After the Timberjacks added a run in the top of the third on Asche's 15th home run of the season, Salem-Keizer added three more to take a 6-5 advantage. Mike Lockwood continued the see-saw battle with a one-out double in the fifth. One batter later, Matt Howe hit a towering two-run shot to left, giving Southern Oregon a one-run lead. The Volcanoes answered the Timberjacks once again, evening things up at seven, when Southern Oregon would take their final lead. Laird, Declet and Matt Forbes each singled to load the bases in the sixth. Second baseman, Brad Henderson knocked home the go ahead run with another single and Asche was hit by a pitch to force home the ninth and final run for the Timberjacks. Bryan Mazur came in to close things out in the bottom of the ninth, holding a slim 9-8 lead. He set the first two batters down with ease, getting Sean McGowan to fly out and striking out Guillermo Rodriguez. Carlos Valderamo followed with a two-out single, setting up Holts's game winning hit two-run shot. Southern Oregon holds a half-game lead over Portland with 10 games remaining on the schedule. The two teams go at it again today at 5:05 p.m. from Salem. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.