TACOMA, Wash. - A solo home run by junior Chaz Kramer (Boulder,
Colo./Silver Creek) in the bottom of the eighth proved to be the
winning run as the Puget Sound Loggers erased an 8-1 deficit to win
10-9 over the Whitworth Pirates in a Northwest Conference baseball
game on Saturday at Logger Field in Tacoma, Wash.
The Whitworth bats came alive immediately as they opened the
game with three doubles in the first four at-bats as they took a
3-0 lead after the first three outs. The Pirates made it 6-0
in the top of the third as the Whitworth bats put together eight
hits in the first three innings. The Loggers got on the board
in the bottom of the third as Jarvis Nohara (Honolulu,
Hawaii/Iolani) singled in Dakota Resnik (Bellevue, Wash./Newport)
to cut the gap to 6-1.
The Pirates added two more runs in the top of the fourth to push
the lead to 8-1 but the Loggers answered in the bottom of the frame
with three runs, highlighted by a two RBI single from Resnik that
scored Will Mentor (Seattle, Wash./Seattle Prep) and Casey Coberly
(Boise, Idaho).
Puget Sound added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth as
Mark Rockey (Mountlake Terrace, Wash./Univ. of New Mexico) doubled
in Nohara and then Coberly singled to score Rockey as the Loggers
got back within two runs, 8-6, following five innings.
The Loggers got within a run in the sixth as Matt Cox (Salem,
Ore./South Salem) drew a bases-loaded back to score Resnik.
Puget Sound took the lead in the bottom of the seventh as
Nohara reached base following a throwing error by Whitworth's James
King that allowed Resnik and Travis Hernandez (Burlington,
Wash./Burlington-Edison) to score as the Loggers took the 9-8 lead.
Whitworth tied the game up in the top of the sixth on a RBI
single by designated hitter Kyle Krustangel but the Loggers took
care of the business in the bottom of the eighth as Kramer hit a
bomb over the wall in left field to give the Loggers the 10-9 lead.
Freshman Matt Robinson (Lafayette, Calif./Campolindo) recorded
two strikeouts and then got Kevin Valerio to ground out to end the
game as the Loggers climbed back over .500 with their third
conference win of the year.
Robinson earned the win for the Loggers to improve to 4-0 on the
season. King took the loss for Whitworth, falling to 0-1 on
the season. The Pirates collected 16 hits off the Loggers
pitchers but committed five errors on defense as they picked up the
loss.
The Loggers and Pirates conclude their NWC series on Sunday
afternoon with two games, beginning at Noon at Logger Field in
Tacoma, Wash.
