4/27/2008 – GEORGE FOX 7-9, LINFIELD 6-3: Bruins Keep NWC Hopes Alive with Sweep of Wildcats
Box Score Game 1
Box Score Game 2
McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Needing a four-game sweep of the Linfield College Wildcats in their season-ending series if they are to win the Northwest Conference baseball championship, the George Fox University Bruins picked up the first two of the four with 7-6 and 9-3 wins Sunday afternoon here at Roy Helser Field.
George Fox is now 27-11 overall and 23-7 in the conference, while Linfield is 29-9 overall and 24-6. The two teams will conclude their series Monday with a pair of seven-inning games starting at 3:00 p.m., with the Bruins needing another sweep or Linfield takes home the title. The NWC champion gets the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament, while the other must await the possibility of one of 14 at-large bids.
Two big innings late in the game and a controversial call that kept the tying run from scoring in the 8th inning enabled the Bruins to take the first game. Linfield got off to an early 2-0 lead against Nick Bratney (5-2) as Cory Ellis walked, stole second, and scored on David Bachofner’s misjudged double to right, and Stew Davis singled to center to plate
Bachofner.
Bratney settled down and blanked the Wildcats over the next five innings, giving his teammates time to get the bats going. Held to only three hits through five innings, the Bruins finally broke loose in the 5th to pin the first loss of the season on Linfield ace righty Brian Clark (9-1). Matt Wyckoff led off with a single to center, stole second, and scored the Bruins’ first run on a double down the right-field line by Dan Winterstein. A passed ball sent Winterstein to third, and after Todd Siler walked and stole second, Kyle Seymour dropped a single into right to plate both runners.
The Bruins extended their lead to 7-2 with a four-run 7th. Pat Bailey walked and Kyle Kuenzi sent him to third with a hit-and-run single to left, knocking out Clark. Wyckoff singled through the left side off reliever Evan Hilberg to score Bailey, and Ryan Fobert beat out a slow chopper to short to load the bases. Winterstein got an infield hit with a topped roller toward third, scoring Kuenzi, and third baseman Dustin Smith’s throw home trying to force Kuenzi was both late and wild, allowing Wyckoff to score as well. Jason Brown’s safety squeeze scored Fobert with the final run.
The Wildcats clawed their way back with four in the home half of the 7th. Ty Stanley singled to lead off and was forced at second by Bachofner before a single by Davis and Drew Van Cleave’s double off the center-field fence scored one run. Smith’s ground out to second sent Davis home and finished Bratney. Kevin Mills then greeted southpaw reliever Brady Rhodes with his seventh home run of the season to left, cutting the Bruin lead to 7-6.
In the Linfield 8th, Jason Boustead led off with a bunt single and Ellis singled him to third. Preston Langeliers replaced Rhodes, and after Ellis stole second, Stanley hit what appeared to be a game-tying sacrifice fly to center as Boustead scored. Catcher Fobert ran down to step on third, however, and Boustead was called out for leaving too soon, prompting a protest that eventually resulted in the ejection of Linfield coach Scott Brosius. Mark Putney came on for the Bruins in the bottom of the 9th and set the Wildcats down in order for his first save.
Winterstein had three hits to lead the Bruins, who had 11 hits in the game, while Wyckoff, Fobert, and Seymour had two apiece. Davis, Van Cleave, Mills, and Boustead had two hits each for the Wildcats, who had 12 hits in all.
George Fox got on the board first in the second game with three in the 2nd off Linfield starter Garrett Dorn (8-2). Fobert drew a lead-off walk and Winterstein was safe at first when Dorn dropped his sacrifice bunt for an error. Dorn fanned the next two batters, but Kyle Seymour’s one-hopper off the end of the bat to first kicked to the left past Stanley at first and into left for a bad-hop single, scoring Fobert and sending Winterstein to third. Seymour advanced to second on right fielder Boustead’s throw to the plate, and both runners scored on Taylor Hunter’s double to left-center.
The Bruins added a run in the 5th as Kuenzi and Wyckoff singled, Fobert’s fly to center sent Kuenzi to third, and Wyckoff was caught in a rundown on a steal attempt as Kuenzi scored. Fobert’s two-out double down the right-field line in the 7th scored Kuenzi and Wyckoff, who had both walked, making the score 6-0, and knocked out Dorn.
Bruin southpaw Nick Hedgecock (5-2) held the Wildcats to two hits over the first six innings before Shannon Chung singled with two out in the 7th and Boustead lofted his first home run over the left-field wall. Mills singled in Stanley, who had doubled, to make it 6-3 and knock out Hedgecock in the 8th, but Preston Langeliers came on to retire Chung on a bases-loaded forceout to end the threat.
The Bruins added three insurance runs in the 9th as Kuenzi singled in Hunter, an error on a Fobert grounder let in Kuenzi, and Wyckoff, who had reached on a bunt single, later scored on a ground out to short by Winterstein. Putney again worked a 1-2-3 9th to close out the sweep.
Kuenzi, Wyckoff, Brown, and Seymour had two hits each in the Bruins’ 12-hit attack, with Fobert driving in three runs. Mills was the only Wildcat with two hits.