Box Score NEWBERG, Ore. – Tom
Zarosinski threw a complete-game three-hitter for
nationally-ranked George Fox University, but the normally-explosive
Bruin bats were likewise baffled by Whitman College pitching as the
visiting Missionaries escaped with a 2-1 Northwest Conference
baseball victory Sunday afternoon here at Morse Field.
Zarosinski (4-2) allowed single hits in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
innings, struck out nine, walked two and hit a pair in throwing his
third complete game of the season. In doing so, he lowered
his earned run average to 1.82 and raised his season strikeout
total to 51.
Both runs against Zarosinski came in the 2nd after the Bruins
had taken a 1-0 lead in the last of the 1st. Opposing pitcher
and designated hitter Aaron Cohen led off with a towering home run
to left, his second of the season, to tie the game. Cameron
Young was hit by a pitch and, after a fly out and a ground out
which advanced him to second, scored an unearned run on a missed
pop fly at short with two out.
Unfortunately, the Bruins had even less success against Cohen
(2-3), who scattered six hits over seven innings, striking out
eight with three walks. He was particularly effective in the
4th-6th innings when he recorded seven of his strikeouts, and in
the 7th, he got Josh Rapacz to ground into an inning-ending double
play with runners at the corners, quelling the Bruins' last
major threat. Lefty Spencer Hobson got the save with two
innings of one-hit ball, fanning three, including the final two
outs of the game.
Derek Blankenship solved Cohen with four hits in as many at
bats. He led off the Bruin 1st with a double to right-center,
advanced on a deep fly to right by Rapacz, and scored on Derek
Dixon' grounder to second which was thrown wide of first for
an error. Zac Israel also had a single and a double for the
Bruins, who stranded eight runners .
The Bruins, ranked No. 20 in the D3baseball.com poll and No. 23
in the Collegiate Baseball / American Baseball Coaches
Association poll, fell to 17-6 overall and 7-5 in the
conference. The Missionaries dropped to 11-13-1 overall and
2-10 in the NWC.
NEXT: George Fox visits Whitworth University
for a critical three-game conference series Saturday-Sunday, with a
doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday, starting both
days at 12:00 noon … Whitman hosts Whitworth Tuesday for two
at 3:00 p.m. in games that do not count on the conference
record.