TACOMA, Wash. – A doubleheader sweep of Lewis & Clark on Monday has given the Loggers sole possession of first place in the Northwest Conference standings. The Loggers (10-8, 8-1 NWC) earned a dramatic 9-8 victory in the first game and rode the momentum to a 7-2 win in the rain-soaked nightcap.
Game 1 – W, 9-8
Addison Melzer stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run standing on second base. Melzer, a freshman, promptly smashed a ball into the left center gap to bring home both the tying and winning runs, completing a four-run comeback.
The Loggers were down 8-4 after seven innings of play, but put together a dramatic five-run comeback over the final two frames to keep a stranglehold on the NWC. Melzer's single was the last of a string of clutch hits for the Loggers.
In the bottom of the eighth, Dakota Resnik came through with a two-RBI single that closed the gap to 8-7. He stood on second with no outs as the tying run but Alex St. Pierre was able to escape the jam with a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to end the inning.
Melzer's walkoff hit in the ninth was the Loggers first lead since the bottom of the first when they led 2-1. After the Pios scratched out a run, Chaz Kramer and Will Mentor cashed in with RBI singles and put the Loggers on top.
However, Andrew Frisina smashed an RBI-single with the bases loaded in the second and Geoff Wertz brought in two more to give the Pios (3-20, 2-13 NWC) a 4-2 lead. Three more runs in the sixth and another in the seventh built an 8-4 lead for the Pios, but it wasn't enough to hold off a suddenly hot Logger offense.
Cam Duvall earned the win on the mound after tossing a scoreless ninth.
Game 2 – W, 7-2
The Loggers jumped on top early and never looked back in the nightcap, building a 6-0 lead by the third inning. Andrew Grady was one of four Loggers with multiple hits in the game. He was 4-for-7 with two runs scored and two RBIs over the two games.
In the second, Christian Carter collected a two-RBI single to give the Loggers their initial 2-0 lead. Cater would later come around to score on a Tucker Barney single into right field for a 3-0 lead.
The Loggers duplicated their output in the third with three more runs. Coberly and Kramer opened the inning with back-to-back bunts to put two on with no outs. A third bunt by Will Mentor resulted in a Pio error as Coberly came around to score. Grady singled in Kramer from third and Barney smashed his second RBI-single in as many innings to give the loggers a commanding 6-0 lead.
That would be more than enough as the Logger pitchers kept the Pios bats at bay. Nathan Aguiar earned the win behind 6.1 solid innings of work. He scattered five hits and allowed both runs although they were unearned. Duvall again closed out the game, tossing 2.2 innings and allowing three hits.
Both Pio runs came in the top of the sixth as they took advantage of a pair of Logger errors. Tucker Laurence reached on an error and later scored on a groundout. Roland Greene hit a single early in the inning and later scored on another Logger error.
The Loggers will look to extend their modest three-game winning streak with a single game at St. Martin's on Wednesday at 3 p.m.