4/28/2008 – GEORGE FOX 4-3, LINFIELD 0-8: Bruins Finish One Back of Wildcats after Season-Ending Split
Box Score Game 1
Box Score Game 2
McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Mark Putney’s 4-0 six-hit shutout of Linfield College in the first game of a Northwest Conference baseball doubleheader enabled the George Fox University Bruins to pull even with the Wildcats atop the NWC baseball standings, but the 16th-ranked Wildcats took the second game 8-3 to clinch the conference championship Monday evening here at Roy Helser Field.
George Fox, which won the first three games of the four-game series to forge a tie, ends the regular season with a 28-12 overall record and a 24-8 conference mark, while Linfield is 30-10 overall and 25-7 in the league. The Wildcats earned the NWC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament, while the Bruins must rely on one of 14 at-large bids to the 54-team playoffs if they are to make their third straight post-season appearance. The field will be announced on Sunday, May 10, with the eight regional tournaments slated for May 14-18. The West Regional, the most likely location for the NWC champion, is set for McMurry University in Abilene, Texas.
George Fox jumped on top in the 1st inning of the opener as Matt Wyckoff, Ryan Fobert, and Dan Winterstein hit consecutive two-out singles for one run, and Fobert scored when Kevin Mills dropped Todd Siler’s fly to shallow center for an error. Siler walked and scored on Jason Brown’s slicing double down the left-field line to make it 3-0 in the 3rd, and Pat Bailey drilled his team-leading sixth home run of the season to left leading off in the 4th for the Bruins’ final run.
Putney (6-1) was a measure of efficiency for the Bruins, scattering three hits and facing only two hitters over the minimum through the first six innings. He allowed a lead-off single to David Bachofner in the 7th, but Kyle Seymour made a diving backhand stop behind second on Stew Davis’s sharp grounder up the middle to start a 6-4-3 double play. Drew Van Cleave singled off Putney’s hand and Kevin Mills lined a single to center to keep the Linfield hopes alive, but Putney struck out pinch-hitter Brian Kerr to secure his second shutout and third straight complete game of the season. He finished with a six-hitter, fanning two and walking none.
Reese McCulley (6-1) took the loss for the Wildcats, being touched for seven hits and four runs, three earned, in four-plus innings. He struck out five and walked two.
In the title game, Linfield took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the 1st against Shane Dalgleish (6-2). Cory Ellis singled, was sacrificed to second, and scored when Dalgleish threw wildly to third on Bachofner’s comebacker to the mound. The Wildcats took firm control with a five-run 3rd, Mills slugging his eighth home run following a double by Van Cleave, and Jason Boustead hitting his second homer of the season, a three-run shot to left off reliever Preston Langeliers, after a single by Dustin Smith and a double by Shannon Chung.
The Bruins cut the Linfield in half with three runs in the 6th off starter Cameron Larson (5-4). Bailey hit his seventh home run to lead off the frame, Michael Woo singled, and Wyckoff’s double scored pinch-runner Perry Knudson. Robert Vaughn replaced Larson and earned his sixth save with 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball, though he did give up grounders by Fobert and Winterstein that scored Wyckoff with the Bruins’ final run.
The Wildcats closed out the scoring with two in the home half of the 6th as Ty Stanley singled in Boustead and Stanley scored on a fielder’s choice grounder to first that was mishandled. Both runs came off reliever Brian Davis.
Chung and Boustead has two hits each out of Linfield’s total of 11, while Bailey had two hits among the Bruins’ seven in the game, all off Larson.