Salem, Ore. - Willamette Baseball won the opening two games of their series with Pacific University, taking the first game 1-0 and winning game two 6-3. Steven Verespey got the win in the opening game by pitching 8 ⅔ scoreless innings and striking out eight Boxers. Dylan Turner earned the victory in the second game while Luke Piazza and Drew Baskin provided the offensive punch for the Bearcats.
The first game got off to a good start for the Bearcats. In the top of the first, after giving up a leadoff single, Verespey struck out the next three batters to end the inning. Tassos Foster led off the bottom of the inning with a triple and was singled home by the next batter, Rocco Granucci, to give Willamette a 1-0 lead.
Verespey struck out the first two batters of the second inning to make it five in a row as he continued to keep the Pacific hitters off-balance. The Boxers were able to load the bases with two outs in the third, but Verespey got Benjamin Lewis to fly out to right field for the final out.
After scoring in the first inning, the Bearcats went without a baserunner until the bottom of the 5th when Preston Lau singled, stole a base, and advanced to third on the throw. Foster followed with a walk, but Granucci grounded out to end the threat.
The Boxers threatened to tie the game in the very next inning and put a runner on third with one out. Pacific attempted to score the run on a sacrifice bunt, but a tremendous play by third baseman Tassos Foster got the out and home and kept the Bearcats in the lead.
Verespey got the first two out in the 9th, but after a single by Miles Bergman, gave way to JD Willis, who struck out Matt Gibbs for the final out to earn his first save of the season.
Willamette scored quickly again in game two. After Granucci was hit by a pitch, Luke Piazza tripled to right center and scored when the throw to third base got away. The Bearcats scored two more in the bottom of the 2nd after Wyatt Thames doubled and was singled home by Charlie Ferbet. After a Nate Hamburger single advanced Ferbet to third, Willamette executed a double-steal that was able to score Ferbet and make the score 4-0.
A Drew Baskin inside-the-park homerun made the score 5-0 in the bottom of the next inning and the Boxers were able to get one run back in their half of the fourth inning on a homerun of their own by Trevor Kazahaya, this one going over the right field fence.
Another Piazza triple in the 5th scored Granucci again and put the Bearcats up 6-1. Pacific tried to get the run back in the 6th when Lewis doubled to right with a runner on first. A perfect relay from Granucci to Liam O'Connor to Carter Stoltz caught the runner at home for the out and the inning ended when the next batter lined out.
Dylan Turner started for the Bearcats and pitched six innings, giving up four hits and one run and striking out six. He was replaced by Nate Schikore in the seventh, and Shikore pitched the final three innings.
The Boxers were able to score two runs in the top of the 8th. The first run scored on a sacrifice fly and the second on a dougle to left by Kazahaya. Again Willamette was able to get out of trouble with a good outfield relay as they caught Kazahaya at third as he tried to take the extra base. Pacific put two runners on with one out in the 9th, but Schikore was able to get the next batter to fly out and he struck out Bergman for the final out of the game.
The Bearcats and Boxers play the final game of the series on Saturday, March 1st, at Volcanoes Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 10:00 am.
