NEWBERG, Ore. -- The George Fox baseball team completed one of their best weekends in recent memory, winning the series outright against the No. 10 team in the country, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, by taking the final game, 11-5.

How It Happened
After dropping two of the first three games in the series, the Stags, ranked No. 10 in the D3Baseball.com Poll and No. 11 in the ABCA poll, started strong as they tried to draw with the Bruins; CMS had the first three runs of the game, scoring two in the second inning on four straight hits and one in the top of the third.

The bottom of the third is when the Bruins took control of the game. Andre Butler and Dylon Poulin drew walks before Joey Marasco had an RBI single and Garrett Strube had a sac fly to make the game 2-0. Evan Balingit singled, chasing CMS starter Aaron Herst from the game, before Austin Stalwick continued his hot streak, driving home Balingit and Joey Marasco. An error scored the next two runs, and the Bruins suddenly had the lead, 6-3.

Though the Stags scored on a solo homer to make the game 6-4, Fox countered with a three-run fourth inning to make the game 9-4. Strube walked and worked his way around to third, scoring on a Balingit RBI single. Then, an Adam Fulton RBI single scored Balingit, with Austin Stalwick scoring on a mishandled ball on the same play. Thanks to six hits in the inning and two timely CMS errors, the Bruins extended their lead to five.

GFU starter Aidan Rady kept the game in check for the next three innings, with superb defensive effort from the infield of Strube, Marasco, Fulton, and Stalwick. The Bruins utilized an infield shift on left-handed batters in the game, and it worked to the Bruins' favor; Rady closed a career-high 7.0 innings pitched with a 43 double play and a 56 putout at second — two rarer plays to stat thanks to the shift — to end his day with just three earned runs against as Fox extended their lead to 10-4 on a Gabe DeBenedetto RBI single that scored Declan Corrigan.

Fox scored on an additional run in the bottom of the seventh (a Fulton sac fly), and the Bruin lead was seven, 11-4. Grant Baskin entered the game for Rady, and while Fox allowed one run, the junior forced a ground out that ended things at 11-5.

In the ninth, Fox turned to Jack Galanida on the mound to close things out. Two baserunners reached with one out, but Galanida struck out one batter to leave CMS with just one out remaining. Fittingly, the game ended on a putout from Fulton to Marasco, giving the Bruins a 3-1 series win over the No. 10 team in the nation.

Top Performances
Garrett Strube, Evan Balingit, and Austin Stalwick led the Bruins with two hits apiece, while Adam Fulton and Gabe DeBenedetto each had three RBI. Dylon Poulin showed good discipline at the plate with three walks on the day. Strube and DeBenedetto had the two extra-base hits on the day, both recording a double. On the mound, Aidan Rady picked up the win after a career-high 7.0 innings pitched and just three earned runs against.

What It Means
The Bruins improve to 13-20 on the season, while CMS falls to 23-11.

What Happens Next
Fox will play their final nonconference game of the season in a midweek matchup against the Linfield Wildcats on Wednesday, April 22. First pitch in  McMinnville, Ore., is scheduled for 5:30 pm.