Seattle University’s patience at the plate paid off as the night went along, while its pitching went from good to great as the Redhawks defeated the University of Puget Sound Loggers, 9-1, Wednesday night in a non-conference collegiate baseball game at Bannerwood Park.
Griffin Andreychuk (Nanaimo, B.C.) and Dalton Hurd (Bend, Ore.) led off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back singles, but after an attempted pickoff play at second base failed, Andreychuk was thrown out trying to take third base. Hurd advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored when the throw on another attempted pickoff play sailed into left field. Sheldon Stober (Kent, Wash.), who had drawn a walk and advanced to second on the error, reached third on a groundout and scored in a similar fashion to Hurd.
Puget Sound (15-19) would score its only run of the game when Nathan Backes led off with an infield single, advanced to second on a single by Troy Kakugawa, reached third on a sacrifice bunt by Johnny Hosmer, and scored on a single by Logan Day. Kakugawa was thrown out at home trying to score on Day’s single, and Seattle U starter Ky Dye (Everett, Wash.) induced a groundout to end the Logger scoring threat.
Garrett Anderson (Kennewick, Wash.) came on in relief of Dye in the third inning and allowed two singles, but Bobby Hosmer lined into an inning-ending double play. After Colin Peterson (Bellingham, Wash.) drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run in the bottom of the third, Anderson again allowed two singles in the fourth inning, but he induced a double play grounder to work his way out of that jam without any runs scoring.
The Redhawk bullpen retired the final 15 Puget Sound batters in order, starting with Chris Carns (Federal Way, Wash.), who struck out five of the six batters he faced and earned the victory. Janson Junk (Federal Way, Wash.) struck out two Logger hitters in the seventh inning before Ryan Freitas (Concordia, Calif.), in his first career collegiate appearance, struck out the side in the eighth inning. Kyle Doyle (Covington, Wash.) finished off the Loggers in the ninth inning, striking out the final two batters of the game.
Seattle U extended its lead thanks to four runs in the fifth inning, two of them on a bases-loaded single by Peterson. Sean Sutton (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) hit a double to left-center field in the sixth inning that scored pinch runner TJ Byrne (Federal Way, Wash.), and Stober scored the Redhawks’ final run of the game in the eighth inning as he drew his third walk of the game, advanced to third on a single by Sutton, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael McCann (Vancouver, Wash.).
Sutton finished the night 3-for-3, while Peterson went 2-for-4 with three RBI and Hurd went 2-for-5 with two runs scored. Connor Savage and Kakugawa each earned two hits to lead the Loggers, who collected eight hits in the first four innings.
Seattle University (20-16) welcomes North Dakota to Bannerwood Park for a three-game Western Athletic Conference weekend series, starting Friday, April 17, at 5 p.m. Live stats and live audio/video for all three games will be available on GoSeattleU.com.