NEWBERG, Ore. - Scoring three times in the 8th to tie it and once in the 9th to win it, the George Fox University Bruins pulled out a “must-have” victory over the University of Puget Sound Loggers in the final game of their three-game Northwest Conference baseball series Sunday afternoon here at Morse Field.

With the win, George Fox improved to 20-10 on the season and 13-5 in the conference, remaining a game-and-a-half behind first-place Pacific Lutheran University and a game behind second-place Linfield College, which both won Sunday.  The Bruins are three games in back of PLU in the loss column, however, with only six NWC games left (PLU has nine), so Sunday's game was critical for them to remain in the conference race.  Puget Sound dropped to 12-16 overall and 7-8 in the league with the hard-luck loss.

Puget Sound struck first with a pair of runs off George Fox righty Brian Ranta in the top of the 3rd.  Andrew Grady and Dakota Resnik hit one-out singles and Matt Cox doubled to left center to drive in Grady.  Resnik scored on Mark Rockey's ground out to short.

The Bruins got one back in the home half of the 3rd off Loggers' right-hander Jarvis Nohara.  Josh Burch walked and Michael Woo singled him to third.  Burch was caught at home on a double steal attempt, but Woo scored from second when third baseman Will Mentor threw high to first on Brent Trask's grounder and Trask and first baseman Rocky collided. 

The Loggers upped their lead with single runs in the 5th and 7th.  Stephen Kelsey walked, was balked to second, and scored when third baseman Eric Gantenbein threw away Grady's sacrifice bunt in the 5th.  In the 7th, Jason Powell singled, was sacrificed to second, and went to third on Grady's single off Ranta.  Powell trotted home after Ranta fired Resnik's comebacker to the mound into center field trying to start a double play.

Travis Schroeder (1-0) shut out the Loggers over the final two innings, allowing no hits with three strikeouts and one walk, picking up his first win of the season when the Bruins rallied.

Nohara had allowed only four hits and one unearned run through seven innings, but Trask got the Bruins going against the side-armer with a line double off the glove of a leaping Mentor at third to lead off the 8th.  Gantenbein was hit by a pitch, but Nohara retired Jason Brown on a fly to center and Seth Anderson on a liner to second.  Dan Winterstein kept the inning going by beating out a topped roller up the third-base line on a bang-bang play, and Nate Hickok delivered a two-run double to left-center to make it a 4-3 game.

Cameron Duvall (0-2) relieved Nohara and appeared to be out of trouble when Mentor made a nice pickup of Burch's grounder to his left, but the third sacker juggled the ball for an error as he tried to right himself and then threw too late to first as Winterstein scored the tying run.

Sam Stahl started the Bruins' winning rally in the 9th with a line single to left, bringing on Colby Robinson in place of Duvall.  Trask sacrificed Stahl to second and was safe himself when Robinson had trouble picking up the ball.  Bryan Martz, after missing two attempts to sacrifice the runners over, surprised the Loggers by laying down a bunt on a 3-2 pitch.  Rockey, charging in from first, tried to force Stahl advancing from second, but bounced his throw past Mentor, allowing him to cruise home with the winning, albeit unearned, run. 

Woo and Stahl had two hits each for the Bruins, who had eight hits in all.  The Loggers managed only six hits, Grady getting two safeties to lead the team.

George Fox steps outside the conference Wednesday to play a rained-out makeup game at Corban College, with the first pitch set for 3:30 p.m. in Salem.  Puget Sound visits St. Martin's College in Lacey, Wash., Wednesday for a 3:00 p.m. non-conference game as well.