NEWBERG, Ore. – Derek Dixon slammed Taylor Isadore's first pitch in the bottom of the 10th over the left-field fence, giving the 15th-ranked George Fox University Bruins a stunning 5-4 win over the defending Northwest Conference baseball champion Whitworth University Pirates and a three-game series sweep Saturday afternoon here at Morse Field.

With the win, George Fox climbed to 19-7 overall and 12-3 in the conference, while Whitworth lost its seventh in a row, falling to 9-15-1 overall and 4-8 in the NWC.  The Bruins also gained a game in the conference standings when league-leading and No. 1-ranked Linfield College lost at home to the University of Puget Sound 9-7; the Bruins are now only one game behind the Wildcats.

The Bruins took a 2-0 lead in the 1st.  Matthew Zeller singled to center to start the frame and went to second on a wild pickoff throw by southpaw Nick Scourey, then continued on to third on the same play when first baseman Gerhard Muelheims also made a bad throw to second.  After Zach Miller walked, Dixon hit a sacrifice fly to center.  Danny Clifford doubled to right, sending Miller to third, and when right fielder Thomas Wakem's relay throw got away from second baseman Danny Jordan, Miller kept going and scored.

The Pirates got one back in the 2nd against Bruin righty Tom Zarosinski.  Muelheims and Wakem singled to put runners at the corners, and Jordan's safety squeeze bunt plated Muelheims.  Zarosinski escaped further damage with a pop up and a ground out, and the two starters matched zeros over the next four-and-a-half innings.

Whitworth took its first lead in the 7th.  With one out, Jordan singled to right and Erik Nikssarian was hit by a pitch, bringing Eric Kittelson on in relief of Zarosinski.  Motsinger greeted Kittelson with a double down the left-field line that brought both runners around for a 3-2 Pirate lead.

The Bruins knotted it in the home half of the inning.  Jared Chase got a pinch-single to lead off and was sacrificed to second by Zac Israel.  Zeller bunted for a hit that sent Chase to third, and Miller reached when Wakem dropped his fly to right that was deep enough to score Chase as a sacrifice fly.  However, the Bruins were unable to capitalize on the miscue, and after both teams failed to score in the 8th, the game went to the 9th tied 3-3.

In the top of the inning, Jordan beat out an infield single to deep short leading off and Nikssarian sacrificed him to second.  Sean Eberhardt (2-0) replaced Kittelson, and Motsinger again put the Pirates ahead with a line single to left-center that scored Jordan.

In the Bruins' 9th, Kadyn Nannini led off against Isadore (1-2), who had come in with two out in the 7th, with a single behind the bag at third that was knocked down by third sacker Jeremy Druffel.  Austin Egger sacrificed Nannini to second, and he alertly went to third when Jordan made a good running catch of Israel's pop toward right but could not turn and get off a strong throw in time.  Down to their last out, the Bruins were saved when Zeller, on an 0-2 count, laced a single to left to score Nannini with the tying run.

Eberhardt gave up a two-out single to Jordan in the top of the 10th but got Nikssarian to foul out to first, giving Dixon a chance in the last of the inning.  The big first baseman, who has been the Bruins' hottest hitter over the last three weeks, did not disappoint, lofting his fourth home run of the season high over the fence for the winning run.

Zarosinski worked 6.1 innings, allowing five hits and three runs with five strikeouts and two walks, Kittelson went two innings with three strikeouts and a walk, and Eberhardt got the win with 1.2 innings of shutout ball, fanning one and walking two.  Scourey went 6.2 innings for the Pirates, spacing five hits with four strikeouts, three walks, and three runs allowed.  Isadore gave up three hits and two runs in 2.1 innings.

Zeller had three hits out of the Bruins' eight, as did Jordan for the Pirates.  Motsinger and Muelheims had two hits each, with Motsinger driving in three runs.

In an unusual side note, there were seven errors committed in the game - six by Whitworth, one by George Fox - yet because most of them were on throws (five of them) and because of subsequent events, none of the nine runs in the game were unearned.

NEXT: George Fox hosts Concordia University-Portland Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. in the makeup of a game that was rained out on Mar. 19 ... Whitworth returns home to host Lewis & Clark College in a three-game NWC series, starting with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:00 noon.