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Box Score 2 NEWBERG, Ore.—Willamette University used a pair of late game comebacks to stun Lewis & Clark College baseball on Sunday afternoon at George Fox University's Curtis and Margaret Morse Athletic Fields.
The visitors scored six runs in the top of the ninth to earn a 12-11 win and nine runs over their final three at-bats in a 12-5 game two victory.
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GAME ONE KEY MOMENTS: WILLAMETTE 12-11
Lewis & Clark scored their most runs in a conference game this season and led for the majority of the game, before a six-run top of the ninth by the Bearcats.
Offensively, Jakob Ghammachi posted his second four-RBI game of the season. He went 2-5 with a run scored and a double. Jack Thomson added four runs, two RBI and a home run.
Mason Lee went 2-4 with three runs scored and a walk and Justin Cavagnaro posted his first collegiate multiple-hit game with three hits a run scored and an RBI.
Freshman right-handed starter Luke Ritter struck out a career-high eight batters for the Pioneers. In relief, Brayden Nomura was fantastic. He went three innings and scattered two hits, one walk and one earned run, while striking out three.
With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the third inning, Ghammachi smoked a two-run double down the left-field line to give the Pioneers the lead and Cavagnaro added on an RBI single to make it 5-2.
Thomson added on a two-run blast to right field to give the Pioneers a 7-2 lead heading into a brief rain delay.
Willamette came out of the break firing and immediately scored three runs in the top of the fifth to cut the deficit to 7-5.
The hosts would answer right back with a three-spot in the bottom of the sixth. With two on and two outs, Luke Bass plated Lee with an RBI single. Ghammachi followed with an RBI single that scored two runs after a Bearcats error.
Jack Savant plated the final Pioneers run of the game in the seventh inning when his RBI single scored Cavagnaro.
Willamette turned the game on it's head in the ninth when they scored six runs on six hits and a hit by pitch.
Cavagnaro kept the Pioneers hopes alive with a two-out double in the bottom of the inning but Brady Joyner was able to induce a pop up for the final out of the game.
GAME TWO KEY MOMENTS: WILLAMETTE 12-5
Lewis & Clark rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead into the final three innings, but the Bearcats offense struck for nine runs to earn the series win.
Freshman Casey Parson pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in his career. The righty went a career-high 6.1 innings and struck out a career-best six batters. He allowed six hits and four runs and earned a no-decision.
Cavagnaro (one RBI) and Savant (one run) led the Pioneers offensively with two hits apiece. Bass went 1-2 with two RBI and two walks.
After giving up three runs in the top of the fourth inning, Lewis & Clark struck for two runs in the third and fourth innings against Willamette's Eric Waldichuk.
In the fourth inning, Ghammachi worked a two-out walk and took second on a balk. Freshman Will Heron plated Ghammachi with an RBI single and came in to score on Cavagnaro's RBI double.
The Pioneers loaded the bases up to start the fifth inning. Savant singled to open the inning and Davis and Thomson were each hit to load the bases with one out. Bass worked a bases-loaded walk to tie the game and Ghammachi drove in Davis with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-3 Pioneers.
Willamette took the lead with two runs in the seventh and added three in the eighth and fourth in the ninth to put the game away.
DEEPER LOOK
- The Pioneers combined to score 13 runs (11 earned) against Willamette starting pitchers Justin Miller and Waldichuk. The duo had combined to give up 12 earned runs in the first eight starts.
- Cavagnaro went 5-9 with a run scored, two RBI, two doubles and a triple on Sunday.
- Ritter picked off three baserunners in game one. Eleven of the 15 outs he recorded were by way of the pick off or strikeout.
- Thomson hit his seventh home run of the season and 19th career homer in game one. He is just two home runs shy of moving into the top-10 for a single-season in home runs (nine).
WHO'S NEXT
Lewis & Clark will travel to take on Linfield College on Wednesday at 5 p.m. in a non-conference meeting between NWC schools.
