NEWBERG, Ore. -- George Fox baseball played their first home games of the 2023 season against the Linfield Wildcats, losing the first game but bouncing back to split the days' games and setting themselves up for a potential series win on Sunday.
Game One
The Bruins' struggled offensively in the first game of the day, only managing to get three runs in a big 12-3 loss.
Fox struck first in the bottom of the first inning off a
Spencer Roos sacrifice fly. They held the Wildcats scoreless in the first, but Linfield scored four runs in the second inning putting Fox in a 4-1 hole.
Fox brought the score back to 4-3 after a fielder's choice scored
Jeremy Sangalang in the third, and an
Evan Balingit RBI double in the fourth. Those would be the last runs of the game for GFU, however, as the Wildcat pitching shut down every scoring opportunity for the rest of the game.
Travis Miller started the game on the bump for Fox, going four innings and giving up six earned runs, striking out just one batter..
Game Two
The Fox bats showed up big in the second game, scoring 12 after a monster eighth inning that proved to be the difference in the Bruins 12-5 win.
GFU found themselves down three after the Wildcats jumped out in the top half of the first inning. The Bruins responded with two runs in the second inning, after back-to-back-back singles — one of which was a perfectly placed bunt –
Jeremy Sangalang hit an RBI single that scored two. The score at the end of the frame was 3-2.
Starting pitcher
Ethan Whitney got out of the top half of the third clean. Then, in the home half of the inning,
Jonathan Stone hit a two-out double that scored runners from third and second to take the lead. Fox owned Linfield with two outs in the game, getting ten runs off of two-out RBIs.
With the score 4-3, both team's starting pitchers went through the fourth inning clean, before Linfield tied the game with an RBI single in the fifth. However,
Brandon King saved a run with a great defensive play, throwing out a runner at home on a fielder's choice to keep the score tied.
Another great bunt by the Bruins (this time from the catcher
Shane McClendon) gave them another run, giving them the lead once more. The Wildcats tied it one more time off a wild pitch, to make the score 5-5.
The next two innings were scoreless, with relief pitcher
Ryder Edwards dealing. Edwards pitched a clean eighth, and the Bruin bats came to life: Fox — loaded the bases with two outs after King was hit by a pitch.
Spencer Roos stepped into the box, and with two strikes put the ball into play for a fielder's choice where all runners were safe, giving Fox the lead. GFU wasn't done yet though,
Jared Miller pinch-hit and drew a walk, followed by
Mason Eastman taking a hit-by-pitch for another RBI. Then Stone had the biggest swing of the day — maybe even of the young season — when he roped a two-out grand slam. The Bruins scored seven in the inning, all with two outs.
Fox closed it out in the ninth to win 12-5.
Top Performances
Jonathan Stone had four hits, two runs, and a whopping six RBIs in a massive second game after not playing in the first.
Jeremy Sangalang had three hits on the day, and hit two runs in on the second game of the afternoon.
Ryder Edwards picked up a win on the mound in the second game, throwing 2.1 innings, and striking out three without giving up a run.
What It Means
After splitting the games today Fox stays at .500 at 5-5 (1-1 NWC), and Linfield is now 3-5 (1-1 NWC).
What Comes Next
The Bruins can win their first NWC series of the year tomorrow, first pitch is at noon.
