After allowing Northern Colorado to pull into a tie twice, Seattle University put together enough offense to retake the lead, and the veteran bullpen closed out the game as the Redhawks defeated the Bears, 4-3, Saturday afternoon in a Western Athletic Conference baseball game at Bannerwood Park.
Michael McCann (Vancouver, Wash.) led off the seventh inning with a single, and Northern Colorado made a pitching change from starter Chris Hammer to Dan Talley. Talley walked Chase Fields (Ontario, Ore.), and Griffin Andreychuk (Nanaimo, B.C.) advanced both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.
The Bears decided to intentionally walk Landon Cray (Chimacum, Wash.) to load the bases, and Brian Olson’s (Black Diamond, Wash.) line drive was caught by Talley for the second out. Talley hit Brock Carpenter (Milton, Wash.) with a pitch, forcing in McCann with the go-ahead run.
Skyler Genger (Kent, Wash.) completed the second of two perfect innings of relief in the eighth inning, striking out three of the six batters he faced. Garrett Anderson (Kennewick, Wash.) came on in the ninth inning and gave up a one-out walk, but he retired the final two Northern Colorado batters to give Genger the victory and pick up his second save of the season.
“Skyler was huge out of the pen to keep us in the game, and Garrett, pitching for the first time in his new role in a meaningful save situation, did a really good job,” Seattle U head coach Donny Harrel said.
Fields led off the bottom of the first inning with an infield single, stole second base, advanced to third on a groundout hit by Andreychuk, and scored on a Cray sacrifice fly to right field. With two outs in the third inning, Cray singled through the right side of the infield, stole second base, and came around to score on a bloop single to right field by Olson, increasing the Seattle U lead to 2-0.
Northern Colorado (5-29, 0-11 WAC) fought back in the fifth inning, starting with Landon Moseley drawing a leadoff walk. Ryan Yamane walked with one out, and Jensen Park reached base on catcher’s interference to load the bases. Ben Netzel sent a single into right field to score Moseley, and Nick Miller drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Yamane with the game-tying run. The Redhawks avoided any further damage when Andrew Coffman lined into an unassisted double play turned by Grant Newton (Bend, Ore.) at first base.
The Redhawks answered in the bottom of the fifth, starting with one out when Fields advanced to second on a Northern Colorado error. He stole third base and scored on a single to right-center field by Andreychuk. Cray drew a walk, and both runners advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, but Olson’s hard line drive found the first baseman’s glove, and Hammer picked up a strikeout to end the Seattle U scoring chance.
Grant Gunning (Snohomish, Wash.) relieved Redhawk starter Will Dennis (Saratoga, Calif.) in the sixth inning, but he gave up a leadoff single to Jake Ekman and hit Dan Reese with a pitch. After a groundout, Seth Jackson singled to center field to load the bases. Gunning picked up a strikeout, but a Redhawk error allowed Reese to score an unearned run before another strikeout ended the Bear rally with the score tied at 3-3.
Dennis, making his first career collegiate start, allowed four hits, three walks, and two runs in five innings, striking out seven batters. Hammer took the loss for the Bears after giving up eight hits, two walks, and four runs, three of them earned, in six innings, striking out four Redhawks along the way.
“For this being his first start, Will did a good job. I think he ran out of steam a little bit, and that’s when the walks showed up,” added Harrel. “I feel real good about what we did today. We had some big hits today, as well as some laser beams that were hit right at defensive players, so the offense did a good job staying over the ball.”
Eight of the nine hitters in Seattle U’s starting lineup earned one hit each, while Park went 2-for-3 with a walk to lead the Northern Colorado offense. The Bears left nine men on base, while the Redhawks stranded eight runners during the game.
Seattle University (14-15, 5-3 WAC) will look for its second conference series sweep of the season Sunday, April 13, starting at 12 noon at Bannerwood Park. Live stats and live video will be available on GoSeattleU.com.