March 31, 2007

Lutes Sweep No. 5-Ranked George Fox in Conference Baseball

Game One
Game Two

Joe DiPietro - three-hitter in opener

Hunter Simpson - wins second game

TACOMA, Wash. – Pacific Lutheran moved ahead of George Fox and into first place in the Northwest Conference baseball standings with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader sweep at the PLU field.

The Lutes won the opener, 9-1, and came back to take the second game, 8-3. With the wins, PLU improves to 9-2 in the conference and to 20-6 overall. As a result, the Lutes move ahead of the Bruins in conference winning percentage and in the loss column. George Fox, ranked No. 5 in the American Baseball Coaches Association Division III national poll, drops to 11-3 in the conference and to 19-3 overall.

Pacific Lutheran combined solid pitching, sound defense and clutch hitting to produce the sweep. In the opener, senior right-hander Joe DiPietro threw a complete game, allowing only three hits while striking out five and walking three to improve his season record to 7-1. Hunter Simpson went eight innings to earn the win in the second game and improve his record to 3-1.

DiPietro did not allow a hit until the sixth inning against the Bruins, who came into the game hitting .366 as a team. Dan Wentzell accounted for the only George Fox tally when he hit a long home run, his sixth of the season, over the right field fence.

DiPietro, the 2006 Northwest Conference pitcher of the Year, got in real trouble only in the fourth inning when he walked the bases loaded. With one out, Daniel Downs hit a ground ball up the middle that PLU shortstop Logan Andrews gloved one step to the second base side of the bag. Andrew stepped on second and fired to first, just beating Downs and getting DiPietro and the Lutes out of trouble.

The PLU defense supported DiPietro with errorless ball, and centerfielder Ryan Thorne made several nice running catches to take away potential extra-base hits.

Meanwhile, the PLU offense scored early and often against George Fox starter Nick Bratney. The Lutes scored twice in the first inning on a Jordan Post’s third homer of the season, a two-run blast over the right field fence. They added a run in the second when Logan Andrew led off with a single and scored on a double by Bryce Depew.

The Lutes continued to add runs against Bratney, who came into the game with a 1.66 earned run average. With one out, Post doubled and came in on a single by Tyler Green. Justin Whitehall and Andrews following with base hits, Green coming in on Andrews’ single. PLU tallied an unearned run in the fourth when Thorne, who reached on a two-out error, came around to score on two walks and a hit batter.

PLU scored two more in the sixth to take an 8-0 lead before Wentzell went deep on DiPietro. The Lutes got that run back in the bottom of the seventh when Bryce Depew tripled to left-center field and scored on Jared Simon’s single.

Thorne, Post, Whitehall, Andrews and Depew each had a pair of hits and eight of the nine players in the lineup contributed at least one hit to the Lutes’ 13-hit attack. Post and Whitehall both had a pair of runs batted in during the game.

Bratney took the loss for the Bruins, his first of the season against five wins, allowing six runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.

In the second game, George Fox took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Bryan Donohue, but that advantage was short-lived as the Lutes scored five times in the bottom of inning. Bruins starter Chris Albrecht ran into a streak of wildness, walking six batters, five of which scored, before departing the game with two outs in the inning. Albrecht took the loss, his second against six wins this season.

The Lutes combined those six walks with three hits to score the five runs, the final two of which came courtesy of a two-run, bad-hop single by Matt Akridge against relief pitcher Nick Hedgecock.

The Bruins scored a run in the fifth when Ryan Fobert led off with a double and eventually scored on a balk, and they added another tally in the sixth when Downs lined out to center field to drive in Donohue.

With their lead cut to 5-3, the Lutes got the insurance they needed in the bottom of the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Sales and a two-run homer over the left field fence by Jared Simon. The Lutes also made several outstanding defensive plays, including a diving catch by rightfielder Justin Whitehall.

Dylan Stanford pitched the final inning in relief of Simpson, escaping unscathed despite a hit and PLU’s only error of the day.

Akridge had a pair of hits to lead PLU’s eight-hit attack, while Pat Bailey stroked a pair of opposite-field doubles for the Bruins.

The two teams conclude the three-game series with a nine-inning game scheduled to start at noon on Sunday.

- PLU -