5/14/2008 – NCAA REGIONAL: No. 2 Bruins Bow to No. 5 Tigers in West Regional Opener
ABILENE, Texas – Four runs early and four runs late added up to more than enough runs for the Trinity University Tigers as the No. 5 seed knocked off the No. 2-seeded George Fox University Bruins in the first round of the NCAA Division III West Regional baseball tournament Wednesday afternoon here at McMurry University’s Walt Driggers Field.
Trinity picked up an unearned run in the 1st against George Fox right-hander Nick Bratney (5-3) as Stosh Hoover
singled with two out, stole second and advanced to third when catcher Ryan Fobert’s throw bounced into center wild, and scored on a wild pitch. In the 2nd, Jordan Pennington doubled home Kyle Felix, who had walked, and Dylan Early drilled his first home run of the season over the right field fence.
Early hit another two-run homer to almost the same spot in the 8th off southpaw Brady Rhodes, who had just thrown four shutout innings after relieving Bratney in the 4th. An error by Pat Bailey at third, playing despite a splint on the jammed index finger of his right hand, on a potential double play ball in the 9th opened the door for two more Tiger tallies, both unearned, with Felix and Jeff Claydon each singling in runs.
Trinity southpaw Evan Bronson (9-3) threw a sparkling six-hitter, striking out 10 and walking only one. After working out of a bases-loaded jam in the 3rd, his only glitch came in the 6th when Matt Wyckoff walked, Fobert singled to center, and Dan Winterstein hit a run-scoring single through the left side. Bronson got Todd Siler to hit into a 5-3 double play to end that threat, and he closed the game by retiring the final 11 batters in a row.
Bratney worked three innings, allowing seven hits and four runs, while Rhodes went six frames, spacing seven hits with five strikeouts and one walk. Claydon had three of the Tigers’ 14 hits, with Evan Jones, Felix, Pennington, and Early collecting two apiece.
George Fox (28-13) will meet the No. 6 seed University of La Verne (25-15-1), a 4-3 loser to No. 1 seed Chapman University (37-3) in the tournament opener, Thursday at 12:00 noon (10:00 a.m. Pacific time) in an elimination game. The game will be webcast over KFOX radio, the GFU campus station. A link to the webcast can be found on the Bruins’ baseball home page.
In other Thursday games, Trinity (33-13) will play the winner of Wednesday’s late game between No. 3 McMurry (29-17) and No. 4 California State University-East Bay (26-14) at 7:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. Pacific), and Chapman and the loser of the McMurry-East Bay game will meet at 3:30 p.m.