Box Score Game 1
Box Score Game 2

NEWBERG, Ore. – While the George Fox University offense continued to pound the baseball, it was the pitching performances of junior Mark Putney and freshman Jeremy Cheney that stood out as the Bruins swept a Northwest Conference doubleheader from the Whitman Missionaries 14-1 and 6-0 Saturday afternoon here at Morse Field.

In the lidlifter, Putney (2-0) scattered five hits over seven innings, striking out six with no walks while allowing one unearned run.  In the nightcap, Cheney (1-0) was equally as sharp, surrendering five hits but no runs in seven innings, with two strikeouts and no walks.  He faced only one batter over the minimum 21 as four of the five runners who reached were eventually wiped out on the basepaths, two on double plays, one was thrown out at the plate, and another was gunned down at third by Dan Winterstein trying to advance on a fly out down the right-field line.

The Bruins touched Missionary southpaw Pete Stadmeyer (1-4) for 10 hits and 11 runs in five innings in the first game, but only three of the runs were earned due to three Whitman errors that kept innings alive.  He fanned two and walked two.

Catcher Brent Trask, the only player in the Bruins' lineup hitting below .300 entering the game, exploded with a 3-for-4 game with a double, his first home run of the season, three runs scored and four RBIs.  He could have had four hits, but his first time up in the 2nd, he hit a sinking line drive to center that was trapped by Brian Kitamura, who got a force out at second on baserunner Todd Siler, who had retreated to first when he thought the ball was caught.  Siler more than made up for that with a two-run homer, his second in as many days, in a three-run 6th that was followed immediately by Trask's long ball.

After Kyle Kuenzi tripled and Matt Wyckoff singled him in for a 1-0 lead in the 1st, the Bruins broke it open with four in the 2nd.  The big blow of the inning was Bo Thunell's two-run double.  Trask singled in a run in the 3rd, then the Bruins added five in the 5th.  Trask had an RBI double, Kuenzi a sacrifice fly, and Wyckoff a run-scoring single in the frame.

Wyckoff joined Trask with three hits and knocked in three runs, while Siler also collected two hits. 

In the nightcap, the Bruins garnered only seven hits off Whitman right-hander Peter Olson (1-4), but three of them were solo home runs by Wyckoff (his eighth), Thunell (his seventh), and Jason Brown (his second).  Wyckoff and Thunell went deep back-to-back in the 3rd, and Brown drove in Pat Bailey, who had reached on a single, later in the inning with a ground out to first.  Brown's homer came in the 6th and closed out the scoring.

The Bruins had taken a 2-0 lead in the 2nd.  Seth Anderson reached on a force out and Brown walked before Eric Gantenbein drove them both home with a two-out double to the wall in left.

Bailey was the only Bruin with two hits, while Erik Korsmo had two hits, including a double, for the Missionaries.

George Fox improved to 24-7 overall and 19-3 in the conference, while Whitman fell to 3-22 overall and 2-17 in the NWC.  The Bruins remained two games ahead in the loss column of both Linfield College (25-7, NWC 19-5) and Pacific Lutheran University (21-8, NWC 17-5) in the conference standings.  Linfield won twice at Lewis & Clark College while PLU swept Whitworth University at home Saturday.

The Bruins will play a makeup doubleheader Tuesday at Willamette University, two seven-inning games starting tentatively at 12:00 noon.  Whitman hosts Pacific Lutheran Saturday in a 12:00 noon twinbill.