LEWISTON, Idaho - Clay Gartner hurled eight solid innings and Derek Dixon sparked two rallies with a pair of doubles, leading the George Fox University Bruins past the host and NAIA's 12th-ranked Lewis-Clark State College Warriors 5-3 in the Inland Cellular Baseball Tournament Saturday afternoon here at Harris Field.
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the second when Alfonso Casillas hit his ninth home run of the season to left, but Dixon doubled to left-center to lead off the George Fox third, advanced on Zac Israel's bunt single, and scored on Sam Stahl's single to left. LC State regained the lead in the fourth as Casillas reached on a fielder's choice putout at third on Brian Gaylord, who had doubled and was trying to advance on a grounder to short, took second on a passed ball, and scored on a double to right by Trent Bridges.
The Bruins went ahead for good in the fifth. Dan Winterstein doubled and Nate Hickok was hit by a pitch with one away. Stahl tapped back to the mound as the runners advanced, and Eric Gantenbein delivered them both with a single up the middle.
George Fox added single runs in each of the next two innings. In the sixth, Dixon, who spent most of the season with the Bruins' junior varsity program, collected his third double in two games (all his hits since being promoted), beat the throw to third when Israel laid down a bunt up the first base line, and scored on a double steal with Israel. In the seventh, Derek Aldrich singled to left with one out, advanced on a passed ball and a ground out, and scored an unearned run on a fielding error at second.
Gartner (3-4) scattered eight Warrior hits over 8.1 innings with no walks and no strikeouts. He was helped by three infield double plays, and escaped his biggest jam in the eighth when, after Billy Silvestri and Bryan Abrey had singled to start the inning, he induced three straight fly ball outs to leave both runners aboard.
In the last of the ninth, Casillas reached on an error at third with one out, and Carl Mason replaced Gartner for the Bruins. He got Bridges to fly out, but surrendered a single to Gino Casini and a run-scoring double to Aaron DeGuire that put the tying runs in scoring position. However, he fanned Michael Bush to preserve the win for Gartner and pick up his first save of the season.
Tyler Barrett (7-2) started and took the loss for the Warriors, allowing five hits and three runs in 4.1 innings while striking out four and walking three.
Dixon with his two doubles was the only player with multiple hits for the Bruins, who had a total of eight base knocks off three LC State pitchers. Casillas, Bridges, and Abrey had two hits each for the Warriors, who had 10 hits in all.
NEXT: George Fox (26-12) concludes its season Sunday at 11:00 a.m. against Northwest Conference champion Linfield College (29-9), which lost 6-3 to Lewis-Clark State on Friday and was to play Pacific Lutheran University in Saturday's second game ... Lewis-Clark State (35-14) and PLU (19-18) will end the tournament on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.