SURPRISE, Ariz. - Timothy Williams and Zach Hegelmeyer each went 5-for-5 in a 16-hit attack as the George Fox University Bruins opened their 2013 baseball season with a 10-3 thumping of the Concordia University (Texas) Tornadoes on the first day of the Arizona Desert Classic Thursday here at the Texas Rangers' Spring Training Complex.
Picking up where he left off last season after leading the Bruins with 13 doubles, Williams collected three two-baggers, scored twice and drove in three runs. Hegelmeyer scored twice, drove in a run, and stole a base. The only other Bruin with more than one hit was Zac Israel, who singled twice and knocked in two.
George Fox starter Eric Kittelson struggled with his control, walking five in 3.2 innings while surrendering four hits and three runs, but the Bruin bullpen picked up the slack with 5.1 innings of two-hit shutout work. Southpaw Connor Harris (1-0) got the win, working 3.1 innings with four strikeouts and one walk, while Sean Eberhart and Alex Keenan each threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts apiece.
The Bruins fell behind when the Tornadoes scored in the top of the 1st on an RBI single by Jon McMenamin, but came back with two of their own in the bottom half. Josh Rapacz singled in Jared Chase to tie it, and Williams singled to score Derek Dixon.
The Tornadoes tied with in the 2nd, but the Bruins took the lead for good in the home half , Chase's RBI grounder scoring Hegelmeyer and Matthew Zeller scored on an error by the Concordia starter Scott Weinschenk (0-2). Israel drew a bases-loaded walk in the 5th to force in Danny Clifford to make it 5-3.
The Bruins salted the game away with two in the 7th and three in the 8th. Hegelmeyer and Israel had RBI singles in the 7th, and Williams hit a two-out, two-run double before scoring on an error in the 8th.
Stephen Kaminski and Tyler Bain had two hits apiece for the Tornadoes, the defending American Southwest Conference champions, with Bain driving in a pair of runs. Weinschenk was rocked for 10 Bruin hits and five runs, four earned, in 4.2 innings in suffering the loss, before Bobby Jones and Devon Rodgers finished up, allowing six hits and five runs in 3.1 innings.
NEXT: George Fox (1-0) plays the University of Texas-Dallas Friday at 10:00 a.m. at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem, Ariz., where the Bruins will play the rest of the tournament ... Concordia (0-3) takes on Pacific Lutheran University at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Ariz., Friday at 11:00 a.m.