After Northern Colorado rallied to tie the game, Seattle University put together a late scoring opportunity, and its bullpen held off the Bears as the Redhawks earned a 5-4 victory Friday afternoon in a Western Athletic Conference collegiate baseball game at Jackson Field.
With the victory, Seattle U clinched the top seed in next week’s Western Athletic Conference Tournament and will not have to play until Thursday night, May 21, at 7 p.m. The Redhawks remain a half-game behind Grand Canyon in the league standings and can win the regular season title with a victory Saturday over Northern Colorado and a loss by the Antelopes to Sacramento State.
With one out in the top of the ninth inning, Landon Cray (Chimacum, Wash.) hit a single up the middle, and Dalton Hurd (Bend, Ore.) was hit by a pitch to advance Cray into scoring position. With two outs, Sheldon Stober (Kent, Wash.) laced a line drive in front of Bear centerfielder Jensen Park for a single, but Park’s throw towards the plate was cut off, allowing Cray to score the go-ahead run.
After striking out Northern Colorado first baseman Brandon Vaughn with runners on second and third to end the eighth inning, Ted Hammond (Shoreline, Wash.) retired the first two batters of the ninth inning before allowing a single. Against pinch hitter Marco Castilla, Hammond induced a blooper towards second base, and Griffin Andreychuk (Nanaimo, B.C.) was able to corral the ball and throw the runner out at first base to end the game in the Redhawks’ favor.
Seattle U struck first with two outs in the third inning when Hurd drew a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and came around to score on a single by Stober. Northern Colorado answered with a run in the bottom of the third as Park was hit by a pitch, hustled to third base on a single by Reyn Sugai, and scored on a single through the left side of the infield by Vaughn.
The Redhawks used the long ball to their advantage, as solo home runs by Andreychuk in the fourth inning, Stober in the fifth inning, and Hurd in the seventh inning extended the Seattle U lead to 4-1. Meanwhile, Seattle U starter Skyler Genger (Kent, Wash.) showed why he leads the league in strikeouts, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning by striking out the side.
Northern Colorado (16-29, 12-14 WAC) started its comeback in the seventh inning as Park and Sugai led off with back-to-back singles. On a sacrifice bunt attempt by Vaughn, Genger’s throw to first base was off-line, allowing Park to score and runners to reach second and third base with nobody out. Genger picked up his 10th and 11th strikeouts of the game, the third time this season he has struck out 11 batters in a single game, but Joe Love poked a single into right field, driving in Sugai and Vaughn with the game-tying runs.
Garrett Anderson (Kennewick, Wash.) came on in relief of Genger and retired the final batter of the seventh inning on a flyout. Anderson allowed a leadoff single in the eighth inning and walked Park before getting a groundout for the second out of the inning, and then he gave way to Hammond.
Stober led the Redhawk offense, going 3-for-5 with three RBI, while Andreychuk had two hits as he extended his streak of reaching base safely at least once to 24 games. Love went 3-for-5 with the two seventh-inning RBI, while Park continued to have a solid weekend, going 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.
Seattle University (28-25, 18-8 WAC) will conclude the regular season by going for the sweep against Northern Colorado Saturday, May 16, starting at 11 a.m. local time (10 a.m. Pacific Time). Live audio of the game will be available on GoSeattleU.com, starting right before the first pitch.