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It's a walk in the park for TJs Southern Oregon uses 14 free passes to thwart Portland By Greg Stiles There is nothing particularly exciting about a base on balls. The free passes put fans to sleep and cause managers to lose sleep. Pitchers hate walks because they stain their report cards. Farm directors see the reports and shake their heads. Radio play-by-play guys gnash their teeth and promotion guys start throwing frisbees into the crowd. But the Southern Oregon Timberjacks didn't mind shuffling base to base and tapping their toes on home plate Friday night at Miles Field as they strolled to a 10-4 victory over the Portland Rockies. The Timberjacks were rendered impotent offensively in 5-2 and 3-2 losses the previous two nights as the Rockies closed to within two games in the Northwest League's Southern Division. But with the help of 14 walks the Timberjacks mixed in six hits and put together their biggest offensive output since defeating Spokane, 12-8, on Aug. 1. After pushing their lead back to three games, the all-night trip to Boise had to be a little more tolerable for the Timberjacks. They open a five-game series against the red-hot Hawks tonight. "With Portland breathing down our necks it was nice to get at least one win," said Southern Oregon third baseman Matt Howe. "We would've liked two or three, but we scratched our way out with one and we're heading to Boise with a win." After sterling pitching performances in the first two games of the series, Portland's prospects for a sweep looked good. Portland starter Chuck Crowder was a fourth-round draft pick out of Georgia Tech in June. In his first outing last week he allowed one hit in three innings, striking out six. Yoel Monzon, last week's NWL pitcher of the week, was slated to follow when Crowder reached his 50-pitch count. But Crowder surrendered six runs in two innings, allowing four hits and walking three as the Timberjacks overcame an early 2-0 deficit. Southern Oregon sent 10 men to the plate in the second inning. Kirk Asche doubled to left-center and Howe followed, belting a 2-0 pitch over the left-field wall to tie the game. The 340-foot blast was Howe's 10th home run of the season. One out later, Crowder hit Mike Lockwood with a pitch. Jose De La Cruz singled and Lockwood scored on GW Keller's high chopper. Then Crowder lost sight of the plate, walking Carlos Rosario and Matt Forbes to load the bases for Gerald Laird. It wasn't a pleasant night for Laird, the Southern Oregon catcher, who was struck by a foul ball on his right forearm in the top of the second and nearly came out of the game. But Laird ignored his pain long enough to tomahawk a three-run double to the right-center field gap to give the TJs a four-run advantage. Portland came back with two runs on a double by Dan Phillips. Forbes' throw slithered past two cutoff men and was trickling between the mound and third base as Phillips headed for third. But Laird dashed out and flipped to Howe in time to tag Phillips. "We caught a break there and that really helped," Howe said. "When things aren't going too well, it helps to get a couple of runs early. We started scoring and kept it going all night." Southern Oregon added one run on a ground out by Asche in the sixth and then blew it open with three runs in the seventh. All three runs came on bases-loaded walks by Portland reliever Derrik Vargas. "At this level, it's not all about winning and losing," Howe said. "But when you're winning it builds your confidence. We're here to work on different parts of the game, but when you're on a team you want to win your league. That's pretty much the bottom line." Keller was struck by a pitch on the top of the spine by Roger Little in the eighth inning and was taken to a hospital for observation. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.