By Jared Beilby, Student Intern

NEWBERG, Ore. – While the George Fox University Bruins celebrated their graduating seniors before the game, it was the Linfield College Wildcats, led by two home runs by Nick Fisher, who celebrated after the game as their 8-2 victory clinched the Northwest Conference baseball title Saturday here at Morse Field.

George Fox, ranked No. 23 in the Collegiate Baseball / ABCA poll and with votes in the D3baseball.com poll, is now 25-10 overall and wrapped up its conference regular season with a 15-9 record in league play.  Linfield, ranked in the top spot in both polls, repeated as conference champion while improving to 29-4 overall and 19-2 in the conference.

Prior to the first pitch, the Bruins honored their 12 seniors: Clay Gartner, Josh Rapacz, Derek Dixon, Derek Blankenship, Zac Israel, Matthew Zeller, Zach Hegelmeyer, Connor Harris, Danny Clifford, Kyle Albertson, Ian Skiles and Jake Hanley.

Niether club found home in the opening two innings before Linfield broke the scoring open in the third.  Fisher hit a solo home run to left field to start the inning and Eric Lawson hit an RBI single, putting Linfield up 2-0.  The Wildcats scored another pair in the next frame as Clayton Truex hit a two-run homer. In the sixth, the Wildcats increased their lead to 6-0 when Kramer Lindell's sacrifice fly scored Fisher and Jo Carroll batted in Jake Wylie.

The Bruins responded as Zach Rapacz and Isreal both singled and Zeller singled both of them in, giving the Bruins hope as the scoreboard read 6-2 Wildcats after six. The Bruins' catcher Josh Rapacz made a spectacular diving play to tag Carroll out at the plate to end the eighth inning after a wild pitch from Sean Eberhardt, but Linfield added another pair of runs when Fisher connected for a two-run shot in the ninth.  The Bruins could not muster anything in the bottom of the ninth.

All told, the Bruins scraped together nine hits, but it wasn't enough to top the Wildcats' 18. Zeller led the Bruins with three hits while Josh Rapacz had two.

Tom Zarosinski (6-4) started atop the mound for George Fox and pitched 5.2 innings, allowing 11 hits and six earned runs while striking out five and taking the loss. He was relieved by Eberhardt, who finished the game on 3.1 innings of work, allowing seven hits and two earned runs while striking out a deuce.

Aaron Thomassen (8-1) was the winning pitcher for Linfield, going 5.2 innings and giving up eight hits with two walks. Justin Huckins and Cody Walker each pitched 1.2 innings in relief, Walker picking up his third save..

NEXT: George Fox hosts Corban University (27-21, 16-11 CCC) at 4 p.m. on Thursday… Linfield heads home to play Lewis & Clark (9-25-1, 3-17 NWC) in a doubleheader starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday.