KEIZER, Ore. – Despite another ninth inning comeback, Willamette University's baseball team dropped this weekend's series finale against the Blues of Whitman College, 5-2, Saturday morning at Volcanoes Stadium.
With today's loss, Willamette falls to 10-16 overall and 8-7 in Northwest Conference play. Meanwhile, Whitman improves to 18-12 overall and 9-6 in NWC games. With nine conference game remaining on the schedule for Willamette, the Bearcats currently sit in a two-way tie for fourth place and are one game out of first place behind co-leaders Whitman and Pacific University of Oregon. Willamette is 1.5 games behind the third place team, the University of Puget Sound. Pacific and Puget Sound have a four-game series scheduled this weekend that will affect the overall standings, while potentially making the playoff picture look a little clearer.
Less than 14 hours after a walk-off victory by the Bearcats, both teams returned to Volcanoes Stadium for a mid-morning first pitch. The short turn-around did not affect the visiting Blues, as Halen Otte got the Blues on the board first with a two-run double down the right field line that scored Beck Maguire and Nate Korahais for an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Two innings later, Whitman added to its lead on a Otte single up the middle to bring home Brandon Ting following his two-out triple to right center as the visiting Blues pushed their lead to 3-0. The very next batter – Jack Bickerton – cleared the bases with one swing putting the ball over the left field fence to also bring home Otte and handed Whitman a 5-0 lead in the top of the third inning.
Neither team would score again until the bottom of the ninth inning when Willamette got a leadoff single from senior Tassos Foster before he advanced to second on a ground out by first-year player Trevor Sostman. Following Foster stealing third, fellow senior Preston Lau got the host Bearcats on the board with a double to left field to pull Willamette within four runs (5-1). Senior pinch-hitter Luke Piazza brought Lau home on a single to right center to bring the Bearcats within striking distance at 5-2. Unfortunately, that is as close as Willamette would get thanks to a game-ending strikeout by Whitman's starting pitcher Russell Petersen.
Offensively, Willamette was led by Lau with a pair of hits, a run scored, and an RBI. Meanwhile, a quartet of Bearcats that included junior Nate Hamburger, Foster, graduate student Charlie Ferbet, and Piazza all recorded one hit each to go along with Piazza's ninth-inning RBI. Graduate student Jackson Garrett got the start for the Bearcats going the first 4.1 innings where he allowed five earned runs on five hits with a pair of strikeouts. Junior Dylan Turner came on in relief over the final 4.2 innings allowing just one hit to go along with one K.
Whitman was led at the plate by Otte and Bickerton with two hits each, while the duo combined to drive in each of the Blues' five runs in the game. Petersen went the distance for Whitman allowing two earned runs on six hits with a game-high seven strikeouts.
Next up for Willamette is its first of five games next week, as the Bearcats begin competition on Tuesday, April 15, against cross town rival Corban University starting at 6:00 PM inside Volcanoes Stadium.
