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Tigers drop third straight in 4-1 loss to
Forest Grove
After tiring week, Tigers wrap up conference
title
Bruins have `good meet for us' at WOU
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GFU survives, earns series victory |
George Fox has just enough Monday to beat Cal
State-East Bay 9-8; improves to 30-6 |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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George Fox earned a baseball series
victory against California State University-East Bay with a narrow
9-8 win Monday in Newberg.
The Bruins entered Monday’s game off an 11-8 loss Sunday to the
Pioneers, followed by the team’s most lopsided win of the season — a
16-0 victory.
On
Monday, the Bruins seemed poised to run away with another win. They
were up 9-1 before the Pioneers, who beat the Bruins all five times
the teams played last season, scored seven runs in the final three
innings to put a scare into George Fox.
“It seems like every time we play those guys, except for (Sunday),
every game has been a one- or two-run game the past two years,”
George Fox coach Pat Bailey said.
Ahead 5-1, the Bruins appeared to put the game away with four
additional runs in the sixth. Bryan Donohue and Dan Wentzell walked
to start the inning, and Kyle Kuenzi, running for Donohue, scored
when Daniel Downs’ bunt single was thrown away for an error. Matt
Wyckoff scored Wentzell with a ground out, and Evan Hagen singled in
Downs. Hagen scored from second when Drew Johnson got an infield hit
up the middle that was fielded by the shortstop, who then dropped
the ball, allowing Hagen to come around.
Bruin starter Josh Burch (4-1) scattered six hits through six
innings, striking out three, but faltered in the seventh. Lamonte
Toney led off with a double, and after a fly out, Patrick Desmond
doubled for a run, Diego De Alba singled, and James Bland doubled in
Desmond. Lefthander Nick Hedgecock took over for Burch, but after
striking out Marco Cartegena, he surrendered run-scoring doubles to
Jesus Muela and Jacob Haberman, cutting the Bruin lead to 9-6.
Preston Langeliers came in to get out of the inning and worked a
perfect eighth inning, but ran into trouble in the ninth. Kirk
Ekstrom popped a lead-off single into center, and after a ground
out, Haberman was hit by a pitch and Michael Thomasson lined a
single to center, loading the bases. Toney then chopped a slow
roller to third for an infield hit, but Seymour, starting at third
in place of injured regular Bo Thunell, threw the ball away after a
barehanded pickup as Ekstrom and Haberman scored and the other
runners advanced to second and third. Langeliers earned his second
save, however, by getting Tuttle looking and Desmond swinging.
Bailey said the lack of quality pitches was what led to the Bruins
giving up a comfortable eight-run lead Monday.
“I don’t know what else to say,” he said. “We had two strikes on
two guys in that inning when it was 9-3 with two outs and we threw
two pitches down the middle of the plate and you can’t do that. It’s
just ridiculous.”
However, Bailey said the quality of pitches was also what got the
Bruins out of the game when Langeliers struck out Tuttle and
Desmond.
“So all you have to do is throw quality pitches and then if they
get hits on quality pitches, that’s life,” he said. “That’s
baseball. I can’t live with putting a change-up down the middle of
the plate on a 2-2 count for a guy who’s hit a double two times in a
row. That’s ridiculous. There’s no excuse for it.”
The Bruins finished with 15 hits off Pioneer starter Steven Roll
(5-5) and two relievers, led by Johnson, who was 4 for 5. Bailey,
Wentzell, Hagen and Seymour had two hits apiece.
George Fox, ranked 28th in the NCAA Division III, is now 30-6. The
Bruins end the regular season with a three-game series this weekend
at second-ranked Chapman University in Orange, Calif., starting with
a 7 p.m. contest Friday.
“This is an opportunity — a big-time opportunity,” Bailey said.
“It’s going to be fun to go down there and be aggressive and see
what happens. They have a very good pitching staff and we can’t look
for a great pitch to hit. We’ve got to be aggressive early in the
count and not get buried in the count.”
The series will be a critical one for the Bruins because they
finished second in the Northwest Conference standings to Pacific
Lutheran University and failed to earn an automatic postseason entry
by winning the conference title.
“If we get one win there and go 31-8 and don’t get in, that’s a
crying shame,” Bailey said. “I hope we get more than one win, but I
think we need to win at least one.”
Bailey said he’s getting tired of worrying about how many wins the
Bruins must have in order to reach the postseason.
“I just want to go down there and play,” he said. “We’ve been
worrying about our record ever since we got swept by PLU. We were
19-5 after Linfield and so we’ve won 11 of our last 12 games.”
Notes: On Sunday, Thunell, a preseason All-American third
baseman for the Bruins, separated his shoulder diving for a
grounder. It was the second time Thunell injured the shoulder this
season. The first time was a partial tear, but his play for the
grounder Sunday separated it again.
“Unless some doctor can perform miracles ... I’d say he’s probably
done,” Bailey said.
Thunell’s setback was just the latest in a rash of injuries to hit
the Bruins. The team also lost backup third baseman Nate Brown a
little more than a month ago to a separated shoulder. Pitcher Daniel
Grierson was hit in the eye in a drill in practice in early March
and is also out for the season; first baseman Bryan Donohue is
struggling with an injured ankle. |
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From
May 2, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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