NEWBERG, Ore. – Tom Zarosinski outdueled reigning NCAA Division III National Pitcher of the Week Trevor Lubking with a complete-game five-hitter, leading the George Fox University Bruins past the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes 7-2 and into first place in the Northwest Conference baseball race Sunday afternoon here at Morse Field.
George Fox, ranked 17th in the D3baseball.com poll and 19th in the ABCA / Collegiate Baseball poll, improved to 24-9 overall and 17-4 in the conference, while Pacific Lutheran slipped to 18-13 overall and 8-10 in the league. The Bruins lead Linfield College, which is 15-3 in NWC games, by half a game in games over .500, though the Wildcats have a better won-lost percentage. The two league front-runners will meet next Saturday and Sunday for three in McMinnville, Ore., to essentially determine the conference championship, although Linfield still has three left at Lewis & Clark College the following weekend.
Zarosinski (3-4) was brilliant through the first six innings, retiring the Lutes in order in five of the six frames. He gave up an opposite-field triple down the right-field line to Jacob Olsufka and a walk to Nicholas Hall in the 3rd, but stranded both runners. He allowed a run in the 7th when he hit Olsufka with the bases loaded and another in the 9th on a sacrifice fly by Cory Nelson, but worked a 1-2-3 8th in between, finishing the game with eight strikeouts and only two walks.
The Bruins touched Lubking (7-2), the national leader with 76 strikeouts entering the game, for three runs in the 1st. With Zach Miller on third and Danny Clifford on first after a hit-and-run single, Lubking appeared to be out of early trouble when Derek Dixon lofted a two-out high pop fly to right. Right fielder Alec Beal could not find the ball in the overcast sky, however, and the ball bounced in front of him and off his leg for a two-run double. After Timothy Williams was hit by a pitch, Zac Israel ripped a run-scoring single to center.
Jared Chase led off the Bruin 2nd with a sharp one-hopper off Lubking's leg that knocked the pitcher down for an infield single. The PLU southpaw, though he tried to battle through it, eventually left the game after three innings with a hyper-extended knee. Chase came around to score when Zeller was hit by a pitch, Miller sacrificed, and Josh Rapacz hit an RBI grounder to second.
The Bruins continued to add on with single runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th innings. Dixon reached on a throwing error at third in the 3rd and eventually scored on a single by Israel and an infield hit by Chase. In the 5th, Clifford walked, went all the way to third on a bad pickoff throw from the catcher, and scored on Dixon's single to left. The final run came in as Clifford dumped a double down the right-field line, Dixon sacrificed, and Williams lined an RBI single to center.
The Bruins finished with 13 hits, led by Chase's 3-for-3. Zeller, Clifford, Dixon and Israel each had two hits, with Dixon collecting three RBIs and Clifford scoring three times. Andrew Oord, who had seven hits in Saturday's doubleheader split, had two of the Lutes' five hits on Sunday, both of them doubles, and scored both PLU runs.
Lubking allowed seven hits and five runs, four earned, with two strikeouts in his three innings of work. Chris Bishop threw the last five innings for PLU, surrendering six hits and two runs, one earned, with three strikeouts and three walks.
NEXT: George Fox and Linfield will play a twinbill at 12:00 noon Saturday and a single on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ... Pacific Lutheran hosts Lewis & Clark for two Saturday and one Sunday at 12:00 noon both days.