March 24, 2008

BASEBALL: George Fox Comes to Parkland for Key NWC Showdown

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran (11-8-2 overall, 9-7 NWC) hosts George Fox (13-7 overall, 9-3 NWC) in a doubleheader, Saturday, noon; PLU hosts George Fox in a doubleheader, Sunday, noon.

A DECADE OF DOMINANCE: George Fox has won outright or shared eight Northwest Conference baseball crowns since 1997, making it the league’s premier program over the past decade plus. The Bruins capped that outstanding run by winning the NCAA Division III national title in 2004. Ironically, 2004 was one of the three years that George Fox tied for the conference title, in that case with the Linfield Wildcats. The Bruins received an at-large bid to regionals that year and ended up riding the arm of right-handed pitcher Scott Hyde all the way to the national championship.

ABOUT THE BRUINS: George Fox currently finds itself in a battle with Linfield for the top spot in the Northwest Conference. Linfield sits atop the standing with a 13-3 record, while the Bruins are 9-3 after a weekend off from conference play. The Bruins, 13-7 overall, are under the tutelage of first-year head coach Marty Hunter, who took over for Pat Bailey. Hunter was an associate head coach under Bailey for three years and is in his sixth year overall with the GFU program. Coming into the series, the team’s leading hitter is Pat Bailey (no relation to the former head coach), a junior infielder whose .462 average leads all Northwest Conference regulars. Bailey has clubbed a team-high four homers and has driven in 16 runs. Senior catcher Ryan Fobert is hitting .397 with two homers and a team-high 21 runs batted in. Junior outfielder Kyle Kuenzi is hitting .360 with 16 RBI and also is 6-for-7 in stolen bases. Junior first baseman Matt Wyckoff has a .353 average, 19 runs batted in and has successfully swiped five bases. The Bruins are hitting .326 as a team but are down in the power numbers with just 12 homers in their 20 games. Senior left-hander Nick Hedgecock leads a solid pitching staff with a 2-1 record and a 2.28 earned run average. Other top starters are junior right-hander Shane Dalgleish, 3-0 with 3.48 earned run average and junior right-hander Nick Bratney, 1-2 with a 4.70 earned run average. Brian Davis, a freshman right-hander from Renton, has been outstanding in relief with a 3-0 record, 2.38 earned run average and 10 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings. George Fox, usually an great defensive team – it finished second in the nation last year to Pacific Lutheran – is struggling in that category this year with a .944 fielding percentage, about 30 points lower than last season. Injuries have forced several players out of their normal positions which could answer the question of defensive deficiencies.

LAST SEASON’S SERIES: In what turned out to be the series that gave PLU the momentum needed to win its first conference title in 53 years, Pacific Lutheran swept aside the Bruins by 9-1, 10-3 and 8-4 scores. Those games were played at the PLU diamond.

ABOUT THE LUTES: PLU currently occupies fifth place in the Northwest Conference standings with a 9-7 record and trails Linfield and George Fox by four games in the loss column. Jordan Post, who earned first team All-Northwest Conference honors a year ago, is really heating up at the plate. Over the last eight games, Post is 12-for-25, a .480 average, with four homers and 10 runs batted in. For the season, Post lead the PLU regulars with a .347 average, four homers and 21 RBI. Two PLU outfielders have been swinging hot bats during the same period – sophomore Josh Takayoshi and freshman Ryan Aratani are both 12-for-30, a .400 average, over the last eight games. Takayoshi is hitting .345 for the season while Aratani is at .338. Sophomore second baseman Carl Benton, once struggling at .229, has brought his average up to .271 over the last eight games. Junior catcher/designated hitter Brandon Sales, like Post an all-conference first team choice in 2007, is hitting .342 this year and is second to Post with 18 RBI. Sophomore right-handers Robert Bleecker and Trey Watt are battling for designation as the staff ace. Bleecker has had three consecutive solid conference outings and last week went the nine-inning distance against Willamette. Bleecker is 3-0 with a 3.38 earned run average so far this season. Watt, 2-1 with a 3.60 earned run average, has walked just three opposing batter in 25 innings. Senior left-hander Brett Brunner had a solid outing against Willamette to improve to 1-2 and lower his earned run average to 5.95. Defensively, the Lutes saw their fielding percentage dip to .960, not bad, but nowhere near their national-leading .975 defensive percentage in 2007.

SERIES REMINDERS: This season, all Northwest Conference series feature four games: two nine-inning games on the first day of the series and a couple of seven-inning games the following day.

LUTES TAKE THREE OF FOUR – AGAIN: For the second straight weekend, the Lutes took three of four games from a Northwest Conference opponent. Host Willamette won the series opener on Friday, 10-8, before the Lutes came back for a 6-2 victory in the nightcap. The Lutes swept aside the Bearcats on Saturday by 8-5 and 12-6 scores. In Friday’s series opener, PLU jumped ahead with a three-run first, but the Bearcats rallied with four-run innings in both the fourth and the seventh innings. PLU junior first baseman Jordan Post had a pair of hits in the game, including a solo homer in the third inning. Ryan Aratani also had two hits and drove in three runs, and leadoff hitter Josh Takayoshi collected a pair of hits. The Lutes committed three errors in the game, accounting for six unearned runs out of the Bearcats' total of 10. Robert Bleecker pitched a complete game to lead PLU to their 6-2 win in the second game. Bleecker improved his season record to 3-0, scattering nine hits and striking out nine while walking one in his nine innings of work. The Lutes managed just six hits in the game but they got a pair of big hits at key times during the game. PLU gave Bleecker a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a three-run home run by Kris Hansen, his second of the season. PLU scored three insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning, including a clutch two-run double by pinch hitter Tyler Libadia. On Saturday, PLU pounded a total of 28 hits in 14 innings of offense in sweeping the Bearcats. Brett Brunner was the beneficiary of the Lutes' 13-hit offensive surge in the first game. The senior lefthander improved to 1-2 this season, giving up two runs on four hits while walking one and striking out seven in five innings of work. The Lutes took a 3-2 lead in the top of the third inning on Jordan Post's three-run homer, his fourth round-tripper of the season. They added two more runs in the fourth inning on doubles by Tyler Libadia, Carl Benton and Brandon Sales, and finished the scoring with single tallies in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Sales, Libadia, Aratani and Carl Benton all collected a pair of hits for the Lutes. The Lutes scored six runs in the first inning of the series finale, marking the third time in four games that PLU had scored multiple runs in the opening frame. The Lutes managed just three hits during the uprising, but they also benefited from Willamette's largesse as the Bearcats committed five errors in the inning. Pacific Lutheran scored two more runs in the second and three in the third on the way to the victory. Trey Watt pitched five innings to improve his record to 2-1. The right-handed sophomore gave up three runs on six hits while fanning eight Bearcats. Nic Delikat worked the final two innings and recorded four more strikeouts. The Lutes had 15 hits in the game including two each by Post, Hansen, Aratani and Sammy Davis.

LISTEN LIVE ON KCCR: The Pacific Lutheran athletic department will broadcast all baseball and softball home games this season on KCCR online student radio. Just click the link that says “LISTEN” on the Lutes’ schedule on the right side of the athletics homepage and then click the link that says Broadband (128Kbps) in the center of the KCCR homepage to tune in. The student broadcast team includes Andrew Croft, Bobby Pimentel, Chris Ramirez and Tyler Scott.

- PLU -