PARKLAND - Outstanding pitching grabbed the headlines on Monday as Pacific Lutheran and Concordia split a season-opening baseball doubleheader at the PLU field.
Max Beatty made his return from conquering cancer to pitch two scoreless innings, and he was joined by Trevor Lubking and Chris Bishop in a dominating two-hit performance as the Lutes won the nine-inning opener, 4-0. With four pitchers combining to limit PLU to just four hits, Concordia won the seven-inning second game by a 4-1 score.
Prior to the 2012 season, Baseball America had named Beatty the No. 1 overall prospect among Division III players, but at just about that same time the junior right-hander was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Now recovered from the cancer, Beatty took the hill for the Lutes and allowed one hit and one walk while striking out two in his two innings of work.
With his teammates getting two runs in the first inning, Beatty took the pitching win because of a college baseball rule that allows a pitcher to receive a win if the coach declares prior to the game that the pitcher will throw less than the requisite five innings.
Sophomore Lubking and Bishop were dominating in relief of Beatty. Lubking, a lefty, allowed just one hit and struck out five in six innings, while the right-handed Bishop threw a spotless ninth inning with a strikeout.
Pacific Lutheran managed just six hits in the game, but came up with some clutch hits when they were needed.
In the first inning, Drew Oord reached on a fielder's choice and moved up to second on a bunt single by Dominick Courcy. Both players advanced a base on a wild pitch by losing pitcher Alex Bos, and Oord scored on a ground out by Curtis Wildung. Bishop drove in Courcy with a line drive single that barely eluded leaping Concordia shortstop Ryne Briley.
In the PLU sixth, Courcy hit a leadoff double off the glove of diving Cavs third baseman Christian Lichtenthaler, advanced to third on a ground out, and then scored on Bishop's sacrifice fly. The final run scored an inning later when Nicholas Hall led off with an infield single and later scored on Jacob Olsufka's base hit.
The second game belonged to the Concordia pitching staff. Jon Yearout threw the first 2 1/3 innings but left with the bases loaded and one out in the third. Reliever Oliver Wange promptly coaxed a double play grounder to get the Cavaliers out of trouble.
Harrison McGhee entered the game in the bottom of the fourth inning and threw three innings of two-hit baseball to pick up the victory. He allowed PLU's only run in the fourth when Oord led off with a single, advanced on a ground out, and then scored on Clay Trushinsky's base hit.
Eddie Crowe threw a perfect seventh inning for the save.
Concordia scored a run in the second on Carl Beckert's line drive homer over the right field fence, and added another in the third on a run-scoring single by Jordan Keeker. The next run came in the fifth inning on Blake Drake's RBI double, and the final tally came an inning later on Briley's base hit.
The Cavaliers collected seven hits against three PLU pitchers. The loss went to Collin Nilson, who allowed three hits and two earned runs while striking out three in three innings.
Pacific Lutheran is back in action later this week and into the weekend with four games at the Arizona Diamond Classic in the Phoenix area.
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