May 18, 2007

Lutes Beat Chapman, Play for Regional Championship

Line Score

Logan Andrews - records first save

Ryan Thorne - speed kills

ORANGE, Calif. – Pacific Lutheran’s remarkable 2007 baseball season took another step toward spectacular as the Lutes defeated the host Chapman Panthers, 4-3, in a winner’s bracket game at the NCAA Division III West Region Tournament at Hart Park.

With the win, the Lutes (35-7) advance to Saturday’s regional championship game against either Chapman or Texas-Dallas. The Lutes need to win just one game tomorrow to advance to the Division III World Series scheduled for May 25-29 in Appleton, Wis. Their opponent will have to beat the Lutes twice to win the regional crown.

Senior Logan Andrews, making his sixth relief appearance this season, gave up a leadoff double to Jake Hurst in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Hearst was on third with two outs when Tyler Dean lifted a fly ball to rightfielder Justin Whitehall for the final out. “He was looking dead red (for a fastball),” said Andrews. “I threw a curve on the outside half and he got out on his front foot and popped it up.”

Lute starter Kael Fisher improved his record to 6-0 but scuffled to do it. He allowed three earned runs on four hits with six strikeouts, but he did walk one batter and hit four more.

The Lutes scored single runs in the first and second to take an early 2-0 lead. Ryan Thorne, who had three hits, created the first-inning run with his speed. He reached on an infield single, stole second for his school-record 37th steal, advanced to third on a wild pitch that ended up not more than three feet away from the catcher, and then scored on another wild pitch.

In the second, Justin Whitehall led off the second with a double, advanced to third on Andrews’ sacrifice bunt, and then scored on a single by Matt Akridge.

Chapman tied the score at 2-2 in the fifth when Fisher hit Kurt Yacko and Kyle Redding and then gave up a two-out, two-run double to Ryan Cavan.

After giving up the two early runs, Chapman starter Matt Ricatto used his knuckle ball to keep the Lutes off the scoreboard until the sixth. Jordan Post, who earlier had been robbed of an RBI single by shortstop Cavan, led off the inning with a double. Chapman relief ace Yacko took over on the mound, but Tyler Green beat out a two-strike bunt for a hit and Whitehall followed with a single that scored Post.

The Lutes added another run in the seventh when Brandon Sales led off with a single, one of his three hits, and later scored on a base hit by Thorne.

Chapman got one back in the seventh before Andrews came in and finished the game for the Lutes.

“We were the number two seed coming into this regional but we never thought of ourselves as being a favorite in any of these games,” said PLU head coach Geoff Loomis. “You just gotta believe that something good is going to happen. Our guys have found ways to finish.”

Pacific Lutheran, which collected 34 hits in its first two regional tournament wins, added 11 more in this game. Fisher and Andrews combined to limit the Panthers to just five hits.

- PLU -