SALEM, Ore. – Tom Zarosinski struck out 10 in eight innings of four-hit shutout ball and Timothy Williams had three doubles in a game for the second time this season, leading the George Fox University Bruins to a 5-0 win over the Corban University Warriors in their non-conference baseball season finale Saturday afternoon here at Warrior Field.
George Fox, ranked 25th in the latest ABCA / Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III national poll and fifth in the West Region, is now 26-12 and must wait to see if it gets an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after finishing second in the Northwest Conference to No. 1-ranked Linfield College. The 56-team field will be announced on May 12. Corban is 29-22 and now turns its attention to the NAIA West Tournament that begins Wednesday at Concordia University-Portland's Porter Park. The Warriors enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will take on No. 2 seed Menlo College in the second game of the playoffs at a time to be announced.
The Bruins got on the board in the 2nd against Jacob Kopra (5-5), the first of four Corban pitchers, when Zach Miller singled with one out, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Zac Israel's double to right. Israel moved to third on Emmett Ackerlund's fly to center and scored on a passed ball to make it 2-0.
George Fox added single runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings. Williams doubled to right-center, moved up on a sacrifice by Josh Rapacz, and scored as Derek Dixon grounded out to third in the 6th. In the 7th, Israel was hit by pitch, advanced on a balk and a passed ball, and scored as Jared Chase struck out but reached first on a wild pitch. The Bruins' final run came as Williams doubled, reached third when Rapacz was safe on an error at short, and scored on Dixon's double down the left field line.
Zarosinski (4-4) evened his record with his third straight win. Over his last four starts, the sophomore right-hander has posted a 1.41 earned run average in 32 innings, with 29 strikeouts while allowing four walks and 24 hits. Alex Keenan worked a 1-2-3 9th with one strikeout.
Williams led a 10-hit George Fox attack with three doubles, tying the Bruins' single-game record, with a pair of runs scored. He also tied the record in the Bruins' season opener vs. Concordia University of Texas in an Arizona Desert Classic game in Peoria, Ariz., on Feb. 7, and is the only Bruin to have tied both the single-game doubles and single-game triples (2) records twice. He has 20 doubles on the season, two short of Pat Bailey's record 22 in 2007.
Dixon and Israel also had two hits each for the Bruins, Dixon driving in two and Israel scoring twice. Gregg Romero had half of the Warriors' four hits.