4/20/2008 – PUGET SOUND 6-2-6, GEORGE FOX 5-4-3: Loggers Win Halted Game, Then Split with Bruins
Box Score Suspended Game of 4/19
NEWBERG, Ore. – After the University of Puget Sound Loggers won a game suspended from Saturday 6-5, they and the George Fox University Bruins split a pair of seven-inning regularly-scheduled contests, George Fox taking the first 4-2 before Puget Sound won the second 6-3, in Northwest Conference baseball action Sunday here at Morse Field.
The suspended game had been stopped due to darkness after five innings with UPS holding a 5-3 lead. Southpaw Nick Hedgecock (4-2) for the Bruins and right-hander Ryan Gustafson (5-2) took over on the mound as the halted game resumed, Hedgecock pitching three scoreless frames and Gustafson two before the Bruins tied the game in the last of the 8th.
Taylor Hunter opened the rally with a single off the glove of shortstop Shaun Kiriu up the middle and Pat Bailey doubled him to third. Kyle Kuenzi’s safety squeeze delivered Hunter and sent Bailey to third, from where he scored on Ryan Fobert’s sacrifice fly to left.
Hedgecock ran into trouble in the top of the 9th as he walked Doug Cox to lead off the inning, hit Travis Hernandez, and walked Dakota Resnik to load the bases. Mark Putney came on and got Jarvis Nohara to hit back to the mound for a force at the plate, but Michael Olsen lined a sacrifice fly to left to score Hernandez with the winning run. Gustafson gave up a two-out hit in the 9th but retired Hunter on a grounder to short to preserve the win.
Fobert, Hunter, and Dan Winterstein had two hits each for the Bruins, who out-hit the Loggers 9-7. Hedgecock worked three-plus innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts before suffering the loss. Nohara and Gregorio Beck had two hits apiece for the Loggers, Beck with two doubles, and Gustafson got the win with four innings of five-hit ball, fanning three and walking three.
In the first seven-inning game, Mark Putney (5-1) went the distance for the Bruins, spacing four hits and allowing two earned runs with eight strikeouts and only one walk. He gave up a run in the 2nd when Beck doubled, was sacrificed to third, and scored on Joe Newland’s ground out to third, and another in the 6th on Olsen’s 13th home run of the season.
UPS starter Justin Ingalls, who had thrown only 10 innings all year, no-hit the Bruins through four innings with one strikeout and three walks before Kyle Seymour led off the Bruin 5th with a sharp one-hopper to the backhand side of Kiriu that the shortstop knocked down but could not make a play on. Nohara (3-3) replaced Ingalls after that hit and gave up a hit-and-run single to Hunter that sent Seymour to third. Hunter was picked off first, but Bailey singled in Seymour, and after Kuenzi was safe on an error at third, Matt Wyckoff drilled his fifth home run of the season to right-center for a game-winning blast.
In the final game, it was a case of too many stranded baserunners that cost the Bruins as they left 10 aboard, including two in each of the first four innings. Kiriu (1-1) started and got the win despite allowing nine hits and a walk in four innings, but he struck out four and only one of the three runs off him was earned.
UPS took a 1-0 lead in the 1st against Shane Dalgleish (6-1) on Olsen’s 14th home run, but the Bruins bounced back with two of their own in the home half. Kuenzi reached on an error by Sean Bayha at short, Wyckoff and Fobert singled for one run, and Todd Siler delivered another with a two-out single.
The Loggers took the lead for good with four in the 3rd. Resnik led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, and after Olsen was intentionally walked, Beck tied it with a single off the left-field fence that was nearly caught by Siler. Kiriu singled to score Olsen with the go-ahead run, knocking out Dalgleish. Beck later scored on a balk and Kiriu on a wild pitch by reliever Brian Davis.
The Bruins got one back in the 4th when Kuenzi walked, Wyckoff singled, and Fobert hit an RBI double, but the Loggers countered with one in the 5th when Kiriu reached second on a force out and subsequent throwing error by Hunter at short, then scored on Joe Newland’s single up the middle. Tim Fogarty worked two scoreless innings in relief of Kiriu before Gustafson came on to get his fourth save in the 7th. The tying run did come to the plate after Wyckoff singled and Siler reached second on a double error by Hernandez at third, but Michael Woo flied out to left to end the game.
Wyckoff had three hits and Fobert two for the Bruins, who again out-hit the Loggers 10-8 but still lost. Resnik and Newland had two safeties apiece for the Loggers.
George Fox, which had an 11-game winning streak snapped in the suspended-game loss, is now 25-11 overall and 21-7 in the conference. Puget Sound is 17-18 overall and 13-15 in the league.
Puget Sound hosts Pacific Lutheran University Saturday in a 12:00 noon twinbill. George Fox visits Linfield College for a doubleheader Sunday at 12:00 noon and another pair Monday at 3:00 p.m. Linfield is 24-4 in the conference after a four-game sweep of Willamette University, three games ahead of George Fox, so the Bruins would have to take all four from the Wildcats to win the NWC crown. One Linfield win clinches the title for the Wildcats and gives them the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.