NWC Baseball: Bruins Betrayed by Wildness in Third Loss to Lutes

Brett Brunner (4-2) got the win despite giving up four runs and 12 hits in 7 1/3 innings.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

TACOMA, Wash. - An inability to throw strikes - the cardinal sin in pitching - proved costly to George Fox University Sunday afternoon here at the PLU Diamond as five Bruin hurlers walked six batters, hit six more, and seven of them scored in a 10-4 loss to the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes in the third game of a critical Northwest Conference baseball series.

The Lutes wrapped up a three-game series sweep – only the second time in 12 years that a Pat Bailey-coached George Fox team has been swept in conference play – to take a significant lead in the conference race.

PLU, 21-6 overall, is 10-2 in league play, while the five-time defending conference champion Bruins, who are 19-4 overall and ranked 5th in the nation, are in second at 11-4.

George Fox got on the scoreboard first with a pair of runs in the top of the 3rd.

Josh Burch led off with a single and eventually scored on a run-scoring double by Pat Bailey (no relation to the George Fox coach).

Bailey then scored on a two-out single by Dan Wentzell.

The lead didn’t last long, however, as Bruin starter Preston Langeliers (5-1) suffered through a bout of wildness.

After walking and picking off the leadoff batter, he walked Jordan Post and hit Tyler Green.

Justin Whitehall singled to drive in Post with the first run, and Langeliers hit Logan Andrews to load the bases. Green scored the tying run on Kris Hansen’s sacrifice fly, and Langeliers hit Brandon Sales with a pitch to load the bases again.

Relief pitcher Brady Rhodes was greeted by Jared Simon’s two-run single, and Roger Guzman followed with a run-scoring double down the left field line. Simon scored the sixth run of the inning on a wild pitch.

George Fox got two runs back in the 5th when Bryan Donohue and Wentzell singled and scored on a double by Daniel Downs, but the Lutes increased their lead to 7-4 by scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the inning.

PLU broke the game open with three runs in the 7th. With one out, Simon was hit by a pitch, Guzman walked, and Ryan Thorne was hit by a pitch.

Post delivered one run with a sacrifice fly, and Green singled to plate the other two.

Brett Brunner (4-2) got the win despite giving up four runs and 12 hits in 7 1/3 innings.

He did not walk or hit a batter, however, something the George Fox pitchers could not emulate.

In addition to the 12 free passes to first, the Bruins allowed 11 hits, Simon leading the way with two hits, three runs, and two runs batted in.

George Fox, hitting over .350 as a team, broke out of offensive slump that had seen the Bruins go four straight games without double figures in hits with 13 safeties, including two each by Drew Johnson, Bailey, Wentzel, and Downs.

Bailey had a pair of doubles to his credit, giving him four doubles in the last two games.

The Bruins hope to bounce back with a home series Friday and Saturday against archrival and always-dangerous Linfield College, which is right behind George Fox in the league standings at 8-4 in conference play.

The teams will play a doubleheader Friday and a single game Saturday, starting at noon both days.

The Lutes visit Willamette University with the same schedule Friday and Saturday.

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