Box Score Game 1
Box Score Game 2

SPOKANE, Wash. – Dropping back into second place in the tightly-packed Northwest Conference, the George Fox University Bruins hammered the Whitworth University Pirates 16-4 in the first game of a Sunday afternoon doubleheader here at Merkel Field but let a 4-2 lead get away in the final inning of the second game and lost 5-4.

George Fox is now 20-7 overall and 15-3 (.833) in the conference, with Linfield College climbing back into first at 23-5 overall and 17-3 (.850) in the conference after sweeping Pacific University 9-2 and 13-2.  Third-place Pacific Lutheran University (18-7, NWC 14-4, .778) was idle.  Whitworth is now 5-21 overall and 3-17 in the NWC.

In the opener, the Bruins scored in each of the first five innings.  Kyle Kuenzi led off the game with a single, stole second, and scored on Matt Wyckoff's single to give the Bruins a quick lead.  Taylor Hunter and Wyckoff hit RBI doubles in the 2nd, Brent Trask hit a sacrifice fly and Cody Curtin scored on a throwing error in the 3rd, and Jason Brown doubled in two in the 4th.

Whitworth got an unearned run in the 3rd and a three-run homer by Kyle Krustangel, his first, in the 4th to close within 7-4, but the Bruins exploded for nine runs in the 5th to salt the game away.  Kuenzi capped the outburst with a three-run homer to right, his first of the season.

The Bruins collected 16 hits, with three each by Wyckoff and Seth Anderson and two apiece by Kuenzi, Brown, and Hunter.  Kuenzi scored two and drove in three, Wyckoff had three RBIs, Hunter scored three and drove in two, and Anderson scored three times.  Krustangel was the only Pirate with two hits.

Mark Putney (1-0) worked six innings for the Bruins to pick up his first win, scattering six hits while allowing only two earned runs, with four walks and seven strikeouts.  Peter Birdwell (1-7), the first of five Whitworth hurlers, took the loss.

Bo Thunell slugged a three-run homer, his fifth of the season, scoring Kuenzi and Wyckoff to give the Bruins an early lead in the nightcap.  Pirate starter Chad Flett (2-2) settled down after that, spacing seven hits in a route-going seven innings with four strikeouts and no walks and giving his teammates a chance to come back.

George Fox starter Jeremy Cheney threw a strong five innings, allowing only three hits with one walk.  Nelson's foul sacrifice fly in the 2nd scored Landon Scott, and Krustangel hit his second home run in the 4th to cut the George Fox lead to 3-2.  Wyckoff gave the Bruins an insurance run in the 6th with his 7th home run, setting up a bizarre 7th-inning rally by the Pirates.

With Bruin relief ace Chad Jones on the hill, Scott singled to start the inning and Krustangel was hit by a pitch.  C.J. Perry and Dillon Knighton pinch-ran, and both advanced on a balk.  When a second balk was called on Jones, scoring Perry, George Fox coach Marty Hunter protested the call and was ejected.  Moments later, Nelson hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Knighton with the tying run, whereupon Jones took up the argument and he, too, was tossed from the game.

Wyckoff (1-1) came on in relief and struck out Andrew Durant, but pinch hitter Luis Tovar sent the first pitch he saw over the right-center field fence, giving the Pirates the stunning victory.  The win ended a seven-game losing streak for Whitworth.

George Fox hosts Whitman College for four conference game next weekend, playing doubleheaders at 12:00 noon on both Friday and Saturday.  Whitworth has the same weekend schedule with four games at Pacific Lutheran University.