Sports & Outdoors

Logger baseball avoids sweep but falls to fourth in NWC

It was a rollercoaster of a series for the Puget Sound baseball team as they squared off against their cross-town rival Pacific Lutheran this past weekend.

On Saturday the Loggers were completely shut down and the Lutes cruised to a 4-0 victory. On Sunday, the action was much more exciting as the Loggers took Pacific Lutheran into 10 innings in the first game before eventually falling by a score of 6-5. However, Puget Sound avenged their losses in the first two games of the series with a convincing 9-5 win in the last game of the series.

In the series opener on Saturday, freshman Christian Carter (San Diego, Calif.) was one of the few offensive bright spots for the Loggers as he recorded two of the team’s five hits, going 2-3 on the day. Sophomore Matt Robinson (Lafayette, Calif.) had a solid day on the mound for the Loggers, going five innings while only surrendering one earned run.

He would eventually get the tough loss as the Loggers could not push any runs across. Max Beatty went the entire distance on the mound for the Lutes, finishing his complete game with seven strikeouts. The Lutes managed to score four runs on the day despite stranding a staggering 14 runners on base.

Game two of the series started off in the same fashion for the Loggers. The Lutes came out hot and put two runs on the board in the first inning to take the lead. However, the Loggers utilized a two-out rally to score four in the top of the seventh and jump out to a 4-2 lead. Carter, junior Andrew Grady (Cave Creek, Ariz.), and senior Dakota Resnik (Bellevue, Wash.) all strung together singles to plate the first two runs of the inning. The second two came on a base hit from junior Matt Cox (Salem, Ore.) with the bases loaded.

The Lutes refused to lie down though and answered back in the bottom half of the inning with three runs of their own, taking a 5-4 lead. A passed ball in the top half of the eighth brought home junior Will Mentor (Seattle, Wash.) to tie the game back up. The game remained deadlocked at five runs apiece until the bottom of the tenth, when the Lutes drove home the winning run on a walk-off double to hand the Loggers a heartbreaking loss.

There appeared to be little hope for the Loggers in the finale as they trailed 4-0 heading into the seventh. However, the bats exploded for nine runs over the final three frames to bring them back for the 9-5 victory.

Cox had two hits, including a triple, on the day to lead the Loggers. Freshman Jeff Walton (Carmichael, Calif.) entered the game from the bench but provided Puget Sound with a pair of RBI’s.

On the mound, junior Alex Baugh (Monroe, Wash.) put on a tremendous performance in relief as he struck out seven over two and a third innings to pick up his first win of the 2011 campaign.

The victory in game three certainly came as a relief to the Loggers, who were facing an imminent sweep until the very end.

Puget Sound will take on the second place Pacific Boxers this weekend at home with a chance to move up in the NWC on the line. They will also play a midweek make-up game at home against the Central Wildcats on April 27.

[PHOTO COURTESY / DENIEL PENDLETON]