McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Two big offensive innings - a six-run 8th in the first game and a five-run 5th in the second - gave the No. 1-ranked Linfield College Wildcats 6-1 and 10-3 victories over the nationally-ranked George Fox University Bruins in a key Northwest Conference baseball doubleheader Saturday afternoon here at Roy Helser Field.
George Fox, ranked 18th in the D3baseball.com poll and 19th in the ABCA / Collegiate Baseball poll, fell to 24-11 overall and 17-6 in the conference, while Linfield improved to 28-5 overall and 17-3 in the league. The Wildcats can clinch the NWC title outright and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament with a win in the series finale, which begins at 12:00 noon Sunday. For the second-place Bruins, whose conference final is tomorrow, they must beat Linfield Sunday and hope for lots of help next weekend when the Wildcats play their final NWC three at Lewis & Clark College.
Game 1 - Linfield 6, George Fox 1
Right-handers Clay Gartner (7-1) for the Bruins and Chris Haddeland (9-1) for the Wildcats engaged in a tight pitchers' duel in the opener before Linfield erupted in the 8th inning to win it. The two aces matched zeroes for six innings, Gartner allowing five hits and Haddeland four in that stretch, before George Fox broke through in the 7th.
Danny Clifford got the Bruins going with a lead-off single to right in the 7th, and Derek Dixon sacrificed him to second. Timothy Williams dropped a single into right that sent Clifford to third, and Zac Israel pushed a squeeze bunt up the first-base line as Clifford crossed over with the first run of the game.
Gartner set the Wildcats down in order in the last of the 7th, but Nate McClellan and Clayton Truex opened the 8th with singles to right and Jordan Harlow lined a single to left to score pinch-runner Finn McMichael with the tying run. After Kyle Chamberlain sacrificed the runner to second and third, Tim Wilson was intentionally walked, but Corey VanDomelen greeted reliever Ian Buckles with a two-run single up the middle. Jake Wylie's single scored Wilson, and McMichael sealed the frame with a two-run double down the left-field line.
Haddeland, whose only loss was to the University of La Verne in the Wildcats' season opener, retired the Bruins in order in the 9th, striking out two to finish with seven whiffs and no walks in a complete-game six-hitter. Gartner was touched for eight hits and four runs with two strikeouts and a walk in 7.1 innings while suffering his first loss of the season
Wilson, McClellan, Harlow, and Nick Fisher had two hits apiece for the Wildcats, who had 12 hits in all.
Game 2 - Linfield 10, George Fox 3
Linfield took a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning of the nightcap against George Fox southpaw Connor Harris (5-1). Wilson doubled to deep right-center on the first pitch he saw, was sacrificed to second by VanDomelen, and scored on Wylie's sacrifice fly to center. Kramer Lindell doubled down the right-field line and scored on Nick Fisher's single to left.
The Bruins tied it in the 2nd when Dixon and Williams were both hit by pitches to start the inning, two of the six batters hit by Linfield pitchers in the game. Zach Hegelmeyer launched a one-out double to the fence in left-center off right-hander Aaron Thomassen (9-0) that scored both Dixon and Williams to tie the game 2-2.
The Wildcats broke the tie in the 4th as Fisher reached on an error at short, advanced on an infield single by Truex and a sacrifice by McClellan, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Chamberlain, then erupted in the 5th. Harris walked VanDomelen to start the rally and was replaced by Eric Kittelson, who surrendered a double to Wylie, a two-run single to Lindell, and after Lindell was caught stealing, a walk to Fisher and Truex's third home run of the year down the left-field line. McClellan followed with his first home run of the year, a shot over the right-field scoreboard off reliever Spencer Eager.
The Bruins got one run back in the 6th as Rapacz, the third-leading hitter in the nation but 0-for-6 on the day to that point, took Thomassen deep to left for his fourth circuit clout of the season. The 'Cats answered with a pair in the home half as Lindell hit his fourth home run after a double by VanDomelen.
The Bruins' last effort at a rally in the 8th off reliever Joseph Stevick stalled when Clifford was hit by a pitch to open the inning and Dixon launched what appeared to be his sixth home run of the season toward left. Wilson, who had just moved to left field from second base that inning, leaped and reached over the eight-foot-high fence to snare the drive and bring it back in a spectacular play worthy of an ESPN "web gem".
Thomassen got the win with 6.0 innings of four-hit ball, striking out four with no walks, though he did hit four batters. Hegelmeyer was the only Bruin with two hits as Thomassen, Stevick, and Garett Speyer combined on a six-hitter.
Linfield banged out 13 hits off three Bruin pitchers, Lindell going 4-for-5 with two doubles, a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored. VanDomelen and Truex had two hits each.