NEWBERG, Ore. – Collecting all nine of their hits and all eight of their runs in the first four innings, the George Fox University Bruins jumped out to a six-run lead and held off the visiting Corban University Warriors in their final home baseball game of the 2013 season, an 8-6 non-conference victory Thursday afternoon here at Morse Field.
George Fox, ranked 25th in the latest ABCA / Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III national poll and fifth in the first West Region rankings which came out earlier in the day, is now 25-12 overall with a final 14-2 record at home. Corban, which set a new team record for wins this season, is now 29-21.
The Bruins wasted no time roughing up Corban starter Justin White (2-6), the first of six Warrior pitchers. Matthew Zeller drew a lead-off walk in the bottom of the 1st and Timothy Williams delivered him with a triple to right-center. Josh Rapacz doubled down the right-field line to score Williams, and Derek Dixon was hit by a pitch with one out. Andy Thiessen relieved and was greeted with an RBI ground single to left by Zac Israel.
In the 2nd, Jared Chase doubled down the left-field line to lead off, was sacrificed to second by Zeller, and scored on Williams' single to left. The Bruins loaded the bases in the 3rd against Daniel Gober with a double by Dixon and walks to Miller and Israel before reliever Adam Shumka gave up an infield RBI single to third by Zach Hegelmeyer and a sacrifice fly to center by Chase.
Back-to-back sacrifice flies to center in the 4th by Dixon and Miller to score Williams and Rapacz closed out the Bruin scoring. Justin Knoll worked one inning and Ransom Storm three innings of no-hit, no-run ball the rest of the way for the Warriors, but the damage had been done.
Eric Kittelson (4-2) started and got the win for the Bruins with five innings of two-hit ball, striking out two with one walk. The only two runs off him were unearned in the 2nd, Peter Martin scoring when Jeremiah Forrister hit into a 6-4-3 double-play with the bases loaded and Kyle Kunkel coming in when Lathan Alger struck out but reached first on a wild pitch.
The Warriors made a game of it in the 6th with four runs off reliever Ian Buckles, but only one of the runs was earned due to an untimely two-out error. Martin doubled with one out and went to third on Kunkel's single to left, scoring when William Koenig hit into a force out at second. Forrister singled and Alger reached on an error at second that kept the inning going, loading the bases. Landon Frost dropped a two-run single into right and Gregg Romero doubled to left for a run before Buckles got the last out with a grounder to third with the tying runs in scoring position.
Buckles then worked a 1-2-3 7th before Sean Eberhardt came in to give up a lead-off double in the 8th, but got out of trouble with two ground outs and a strikeout. In the 9th, he retired the first two hitters before walking Derek Legg and Martin, bringing on closer Alex Keenan, who notched his second save by getting Kunkel to ground out to short.
George Fox closes out its regular season with a single game at Corban in Salem, Ore., Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The Bruins finished second to Linfield College in the Northwest Conference and must wait to see if their season will continue after this weekend with an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament. With numerous conference tournaments going on around the country over the next three weekends, the Bruins will not be sure of their fate until the 56-team field is announced on Sunday, May 12.