SALEM, Ore. – Trailing by two runs and down to their last out in the 9th, the George Fox University Bruins rallied to defeat Corban University 3-2 in the opener of a non-conference baseball doubleheader Saturday afternoon here at Warrior Field before the Warriors came back for a 6-2 win in the nightcap.
Game 1 - George Fox 3, at Corban 2
Held to only two hits over eight innings by Corban ace Jacob Kopra and reliever Tony Davidson, and with two out and nobody on in the 9th, the Bruins fought back against closer Stockton Taylor (0-2). The rally began innocuously with Taylor Johnson drawing a walk. Derek Dixon singled pinch-runner Gabe Louthan to third, and a wild pitch brought in the first Bruin run. Zach Rapacz doubled to left to tie it, and scored the winning run when Zac Israel's grounder to short was thrown away for a two-base error.
The rally made a winner of southpaw Sam Morland (2-1), who had relieved starter Tom Zarosinski in the eighth and threw one scoreless inning. Zarosinski had scattered six hits with four strikeouts and two walks in his seven innings but left trailing 2-0. Sean Eberhardt pitched a 1-2-3 9th with one punchout to record his fourth save of the season.
Corban scored single runs in the 1st and 3rd innings to build its lead. Landon Frost doubled and scored on a Marc Gallegos single in the opening frame, and Ryan Rosas was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in Frost to make it 2-0 in the 3rd.
Dixon had half of the Bruins' hits with two, while Frost, Gallegos, and Vince Gonzalez had two hits apiece for all of the Warriors' safeties.
Game 2 - at Corban 6, George Fox 2
Southpaw Connor Harris (0-3) made his first start of the season and went six innings but was pinned with the loss despite allowing only two earned runs, three Bruin errors contributing to three unearned tallies. Austin Guzzon (6-4) got the win for Corban with five innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits with seven strikeouts and no walks before two relievers finished up.
After Gregg Romero gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly in the 2nd, the Bruins tied it in the 4th on singles by Danny Clifford, Dixon, and Israel. Two unearned runs in the 5th gave Corban a 3-1 lead, but Clifford got one of those back with his eighth home run of the season, a solo shot to left in the 6th. Gonzalez gave the Warriors some insurance with a two-run homer to left, his second of the year, in the 6th, and a Gallegos sacrifice fly in the 7th closed out the scoring.
Clifford was the only Bruin with two hits in the second game out of eight hits in all, while Gallegos, Gonzalez, and Jackson Smith collected two hits apiece for the Warriors. Corban had nine hits off Harris and two off reliever Kyle Albertson.
NEXT: George Fox (27-11) closes out its regular season with two non-conference games against Linfield College, visiting the Wildcats on Friday for a 5:00 p.m. contest before hosting their Yamhill County rivals and the Northwest Conference champions on Sunday, May 4, at 3:30 p.m. These two games do not count on the teams' conference records … Corban (28-24) returns to action at 1:00 p.m. Friday when it faces Concordia University-Portland in the opening round of the NAIA West Grouping Tournament that will be hosted by the University of British Columbia.