ANTHEM, Ariz. - Opening the 2010 baseball
season against the same team and pitcher they faced in the first
round of last year's NCAA Division III West Regionals, the George
Fox University Bruins suffered a similar fate as they fell to the
California Lutheran University Kingsmen 13-3 in the Arizona Desert
Classic Thursday here at Boulder Creek High School.
Cal Lutheran southpaw Greg Gelber (2-0), who handed George Fox a
2-1 loss in the '09 regional opener with a four-hitter, was back on
the mound for this game and was equally as effective, shutting out
the Bruins for five innings to pick up the win.
George Fox right-hander Mark Putney (0-1), who took the
hard-luck loss last year in the matchup with Gelber, also got the
start this time and pitched well. Although he left after five
innings trailing 3-0, two of the runs came as the result of a fly
ball that was misplayed into a double.
Cal Lutheran broke the game open in the 6th against reliever
Brian Ranta. After a pair of lead-off walks, one run scored
on a mishandled sacrifice bunt, and the next three batters all hit
safely as the Kingsmen eventually plated six runs in the
inning. Lefty Tyler Richwine worked two inning and Adam Weber
one to close out the game for the Bruins.
George Fox collected seven hits in the game, led by Colton
Thomas, who had three hits and drove in a run. Seth Anderson
added two hits, and Dan Winterstein picked up two
RBIs.
NOTES: George Fox was ranked 18th in the
Collegiate Baseball pre-season poll and 19th in the
D3baseball.com poll ... Cal Lutheran was 20th in Collegiate
Baseball and among "others receiving votes" in D3baseball.com
... Sophomore right-hander Jeremy Cheney, who was 1-0 with a 3.16
ERA last season, gets the nod for the Bruins in Friday's game
against Occidental College (2-2), which fell to Pacific Lutheran
University 15-4 in another Classic game on Thursday. The
first pitch is set for 2:00 p.m. ... Cal Lutheran and Pacific
Lutheran also play at 2:00 p.m. Thursday in a matchup of two hot
teams which are both 4-0.
