NEWBERG, Ore. – Tom Zarosinski threw a complete-game three-hitter for nationally-ranked George Fox University, but the normally-explosive Bruin bats were likewise baffled by Whitman College pitching as the visiting Missionaries escaped with a 2-1 Northwest Conference baseball victory Sunday afternoon here at Morse Field.
Zarosinski (4-2) allowed single hits in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings, struck out nine, walked two and hit a pair in throwing his third complete game of the season. In doing so, he lowered his earned run average to 1.82 and raised his season strikeout total to 51.
Both runs against Zarosinski came in the 2nd after the Bruins had taken a 1-0 lead in the last of the 1st. Opposing pitcher and designated hitter Aaron Cohen led off with a towering home run to left, his second of the season, to tie the game. Cameron Young was hit by a pitch and, after a fly out and a ground out which advanced him to second, scored an unearned run on a missed pop fly at short with two out.
Unfortunately, the Bruins had even less success against Cohen (2-3), who scattered six hits over seven innings, striking out eight with three walks. He was particularly effective in the 4th-6th innings when he recorded seven of his strikeouts, and in the 7th, he got Josh Rapacz to ground into an inning-ending double play with runners at the corners, quelling the Bruins' last major threat. Lefty Spencer Hobson got the save with two innings of one-hit ball, fanning three, including the final two outs of the game.
Derek Blankenship solved Cohen with four hits in as many at bats. He led off the Bruin 1st with a double to right-center, advanced on a deep fly to right by Rapacz, and scored on Derek Dixon' grounder to second which was thrown wide of first for an error. Zac Israel also had a single and a double for the Bruins, who stranded eight runners .
The Bruins, ranked No. 20 in the D3baseball.com poll and No. 23 in the Collegiate Baseball / American Baseball Coaches Association poll, fell to 17-6 overall and 7-5 in the conference. The Missionaries dropped to 11-13-1 overall and 2-10 in the NWC.
NEXT: George Fox visits Whitworth University for a critical three-game conference series Saturday-Sunday, with a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday, starting both days at 12:00 noon … Whitman hosts Whitworth Tuesday for two at 3:00 p.m. in games that do not count on the conference record.