LEWISTON, Idaho - Clay Gartner
hurled eight solid innings and Derek Dixon sparked two rallies with
a pair of doubles, leading the George Fox University Bruins past
the host and NAIA's 12th-ranked Lewis-Clark State College
Warriors 5-3 in the Inland Cellular Baseball Tournament Saturday
afternoon here at Harris Field.
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the second when Alfonso Casillas
hit his ninth home run of the season to left, but Dixon doubled to
left-center to lead off the George Fox third, advanced on Zac
Israel's bunt single, and scored on Sam Stahl's single
to left. LC State regained the lead in the fourth as Casillas
reached on a fielder's choice putout at third on Brian
Gaylord, who had doubled and was trying to advance on a grounder to
short, took second on a passed ball, and scored on a double to
right by Trent Bridges.
The Bruins went ahead for good in the fifth. Dan
Winterstein doubled and Nate Hickok was hit by a pitch with one
away. Stahl tapped back to the mound as the runners advanced,
and Eric Gantenbein delivered them both with a single up the
middle.
George Fox added single runs in each of the next two
innings. In the sixth, Dixon, who spent most of the season
with the Bruins' junior varsity program, collected his third
double in two games (all his hits since being promoted), beat the
throw to third when Israel laid down a bunt up the first base line,
and scored on a double steal with Israel. In the seventh,
Derek Aldrich singled to left with one out, advanced on a passed
ball and a ground out, and scored an unearned run on a fielding
error at second.
Gartner (3-4) scattered eight Warrior hits over 8.1 innings with
no walks and no strikeouts. He was helped by three infield
double plays, and escaped his biggest jam in the eighth when, after
Billy Silvestri and Bryan Abrey had singled to start the inning, he
induced three straight fly ball outs to leave both runners
aboard.
In the last of the ninth, Casillas reached on an error at third
with one out, and Carl Mason replaced Gartner for the Bruins.
He got Bridges to fly out, but surrendered a single to Gino Casini
and a run-scoring double to Aaron DeGuire that put the tying runs
in scoring position. However, he fanned Michael Bush to
preserve the win for Gartner and pick up his first save of the
season.
Tyler Barrett (7-2) started and took the loss for the Warriors,
allowing five hits and three runs in 4.1 innings while striking out
four and walking three.
Dixon with his two doubles was the only player with multiple
hits for the Bruins, who had a total of eight base knocks off three
LC State pitchers. Casillas, Bridges, and Abrey had two hits
each for the Warriors, who had 10 hits in all.
NEXT: George Fox (26-12) concludes its season
Sunday at 11:00 a.m. against Northwest Conference champion Linfield
College (29-9), which lost 6-3 to Lewis-Clark State on Friday and
was to play Pacific Lutheran University in Saturday's second
game ... Lewis-Clark State (35-14) and PLU (19-18) will end the
tournament on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
