Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 NEWBERG, Ore. --- The No. 25-ranked George Fox softball team entered Friday's double-header tied for first in the Northwest Conference standings with opponent Whitworth University. After the double-dip both teams walked away still tied for first, as they each took a game in dramatic fashion.
Game 1
Kayla Anderson went 4-4 to push her average up to .408, and six different Bruins recorded an RBI in the first game of the Bruins' Friday doubleheader with Whitworth. The Bruins' 10-2 victory was their 24th of the year, tying last year's program record with another month yet to play.
Starter Abbie Bergerson threw a complete game, scattering three hits and two runs over six innings, as she chased down her 14th win.
Anderson managed somehow not to drive in any runs during her 4-4 day, but she did score three times. Amanda Woods led the Bruins with two RBI and launched the Bruins' only home run, finishing 2-3. Annie Veatch went 1-3 with a double.
Contrary to the final score, Whitworth began the game on the front foot. In the first, Shannon Wessel's RBI groundout gave Whitworth an early 1-0 lead, and after Woods pulled a long two-run homer over the left field fence in the bottom of the first, Whitworth tied the score on Sacha Clow's RBI double.
From that point on, though, the Bruins were firmly in control. With the bases loaded and no outs in the third, the Bruins scored four runs without recording a base hit. An error brought in Kat Hylton with the first, Veatch's fielder's choice scored the second, and Howard's hit-by-pitch forced in the third. Julia Apodaca then fought off a pitch to second base, and her groundout let Alex Parker score the fourth.
Up 6-2, the Bruins continued to find unusual ways to score runs. Veatch drove in another when Anderson's good baserunning turned a short foul into a sacrifice fly. In the sixth, the Bruins scored their last two runs, the frist on a combination fielder's choice and error, and the second on a relatively conventional sacrifice fly by Rebecca Pridmore.
The second game of Friday's double-header offers the Bruins a chance at setting a new single-season wins record.
Game 2
The Bruins dropped a heartbreaking, heartracing game two on Friday, a 10-9 loss to Whitworth that saw two grand slams and 27 hits between the two teams. Megan Furtado, who had the walkoff double against Linfield last week, stepped up again, finishing 3-4 with five RBIs, including the Bruins' grand slam.
Kayla Anderson also had a standout day, going 3-5 with three runs scored and an RBI. Julia Apodaca had a pair of hits and a run batted in, and Rebecca Pridmore also added two hits.
Despite throwing just one inning, reliever Abbie Bergerson took the loss to drop her record to 14-3.
Whitworth dropped the first haymaker of the slugfest in the second, as Chelsey Hayes came to bat with the bases loaded and caught hold of a Madison Sorensen fastball and drilled a grand slam over the center field fence.
The Bruins clawed back: Anderson hit solo shot in the third to make the score 4-1, but Megan John dropped an RBI double down the line to extend Whitworth's lead to 5-1. Then, in the fifth, both Peyton McMahon and Kayla Batastini hit roundtrippers to blow open the game, 8-1.
The Bruins kept fighting. Furtado got the Bruins back in the fifth with her grand slam, and George Fox scored four more in the sixth on four RBI singles from Furtado, Courtney Howard, Alex Parker, and Apodaca.
Now losing 9-8, Whitworth found just enough offense to retake the game. In the top of the seventh, Batastini homered yet again, and Shannon Wessel fought a pitch into right for a single and the game-winning RBI.
The loss means the Bruins split Friday's doubleheader and hold a 24-6 record.
