TACOMA, Wash. — The Puget Sound Loggers baseball team earned their first Northwest Conference win in a 6-5 victory followed by an 8-5 loss to George Fox University on Saturday on Logger Field.
In the first game,
Davis Franklin pitched the first 7.0 innings striking out 12 batters while only allowing three earned runs and two walks in the win.
Zach Robman came in the 8th inning to give up one sacrifice fly, but continued on to hold off eight other batters.
Makana Murashige had two hits and three RBIs, but it was
Aidan Sullivan who slammed a homer on his first at-bat of the day to lead the Loggers to the first conference win.
The George Fox Bruins started the scoring in the second inning with a home run that shot over left field. In the bottom of the second, Aidan Sulllivan did the same thing to right field, sending the ball well over the fence and tying the game up, 1-1.
The Loggers would see three scoreless innings before a double from Murashige that would bring in three runs, followed by a double from
Jack McCullar to score in Murashige.
The Bruins would score another homerun in the top of the seventh to reduce the deficit to 5-3. George Fox would battle hard after a pitching change and load the bases on second and third after a sacrifice bunt was out at first base. Robman would allow one run off a sacrifice fly ball and one more hit before a fly ball to centerfield would end the inning. Again in the ninth inning, George Fox fought for some more hits, reaching first on an error, then a hit by pitch, followed by a fielders choice and a single, but Robman finally ended the inning with a strikeout.
The second game saw a stronger Bruins offense as they started the first inning with three hits followed by a three-run homerun from Jared Whitaker to begin the surge. Then, the Loggers scored in two runs on four hits, McCullar and
Cody Hirano's each singled to score in Kamihara and Franklin and narrow the deficit to two runs.
The Loggers would tie the game up in the forth inning when
Drew Kamihara scored
Sean Murphy in on a homerun to right field, his first of the season. The Bruins would inch away in the next two innings grabbing a run in each and two runs in the seventh.
Cal Johnson would finish out the 8th and 9th innings pitching, striking out one batter and holding five batters from earning any hits.
The Loggers will finish the three-game series against George Fox University tomorrow, March 24, at noon on Logger Field.
