| George Fox crossed the plate 11 times on 25 hits Saturday as the Bruins ended Whitworth's 11 game win streak. George Fox athletics photo |
It was a day of victories for the remaining members of the D3Baseball.com top 10. Number one ranked Cortland moved to 7-0, upending Johns Hopkins 9-0 in the opener of a two-game set as five Dragon pitchers combined to surrender just one hit.
No. 4-ranked Trinity (Texas) rebounded from a hard-fought 8-5 Friday night loss to Texas Lutheran by taking two from the Bulldogs 2-1 and 11-4 as a three-run homer by Jeremy Wolf in the seventh inning of game two helped the Tigers move to 12-3 overall
No. 5 Birmingham-Southern posted a pair of victories over Centre upending the Praying Colonels 4-0 and 4-3 with the junior right-handed pitching duo of Ryan Gaines and Easton Fuller combining for a gem in the opener with five strikeouts and only three hits given up; sophomore right-handed starter Greg Schneider, just a week removed from his National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division III Pitcher of the Week award, made a strong bid for another accolade, taming a solid Keystone offense in an intriguing regional clash behind 14 strikeouts of the Giants to lead the No. 6 Bobcats to a 5-1 win; and No. 9 Shenandoah opened a weekend series with CCNY winning both ends of a doubleheader by 10-1 and 4-1 scores.
| Freshman Trevor Willits delivered a walkoff single in the ninth inning of game two to help Chapman split with No. 13 Webster. Chapman athletics photo |
Beyond the top 10, No. 11 Kean gained a 14-7 win over Pitt-Greenburg, while No. 13 Webster began a four-game trek through the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference splitting with Chapman, and No. 14 Whitworth saw its 11-game season-opening win streak end with a pair of defeats at the hands of George Fox as the Bruins rallied with single runs in the seventh and eighth frames of the nightcap for a 5-4 decision after scoring six runs over the opening two innings of game one in route to a 6-3 victory.
No. 16 Randolph-Macon continued to impress, as Christian Sanderson plated the winning run on a hit by pitch as part of a four-for-four day in a 2-1 10-inning thriller over Guilford; No. 18 Mary Washington’s offense remained hot tallying 12 runs for a second straight game in a victory over Penn College; and No. 20 Linfield saw the topsy-turvy early-season theme of the Northwest Athletic Conference resume as Lewis and Clark topped the Wildcats in game one 4-3 before Linfield responded with 15 runs in game two as part of a 15-2 win.
Looking further into the day’s results, Transylvania, Franklin and Manchester each gathered sweeps for the rising Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Transylvania improved to 4-2 with a sweep over Berry College of Georgia of the Southern Athletic Association, topping their hosts 12-8 and 6-5 to send the Vikings (12-4) to their first series loss of the season. Franklin wrapped up a series win over Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association member Albion when freshman Tanner Nicholson drove in the winning run in the 10th with a sacrifice fly, and MU (3-2) made it five teams in the conference, still led by surprising Mt. St. Joseph’s 5-0 record, with winning marks this young season as they swept past North Coast Athletic Conference foe DePauw 4-3 and 4-2.