NEWBERG, Ore. It doesn't get any sweeter than pushing the winning run across in your final at bat, and on Sunday Whitman's Blues did it twice to capture a Northwest Conference series sweep of host and 24th-ranked George Fox University.
Picking up in the eighth inning of a game halted Saturday by darkness, Whitman rallied with six runs in the top of the ninth to notch a 12-8 to start things off Sunday morning at Morse Athletic Field.
The dramatic endings weren't over yet as the Blues broke a tie with a run in their half of the ninth for a 5-4 win in the afternoon game to complete Whitman's first series sweep of the season.
After the Blues had endured a 30-minute rain delay during a 9-8 win to open Saturday's originally-schedule doubleheader, darkness put a halt to the, literal, nightcap after Fox had plated five runs in the bottom of the seventh to forge an 8-6 lead.
A quiet eighth inning for both teams led off Sunday morning's completion, but the quietness turned into a roar with
Joseph Zimmer's lead-off walk in the ninth.
Lucas Thrun's single put two runners on for
Kyle Reisman, who stroked an RBI-single into left-center field to push Zimmer home and move pinch-runner
Court Osborn to second.
A sacrifice bunt moved the runners up for
Matthew Sox and, with Whitman still trailing by a run, the first-year came up clutch with a two-RBI single into right that allowed both Osborn and Reisman to score -- for a 9-8 lead.
Eventually three more runs would come around, leaving the opportunity to complete the come-back victory in the hands of
Collin Anderson who had taken the mound at the beginning of the eighth.
Anderson (1-0) set the Bruins down in order in his first frame, then closed the door with another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the ninth to pick up his first win of the season.
Sox's three RBI led the Blues in the win, but
Tyler Lewis, Thrun and Reisman chipped in with two apiece to aide the cause.
The fireworks were limited in the afternoon game on Sunday, as the Bruins tried to avoid the sweep.
Fox took to the lead first, scoring three times against Whitman starter
John Lyon in the bottom of the fourth.
The deficit didn't last, though, as the Blues followed with a four-run fifth to put Lyon back on top.
During Whitman's big inning it picked up singles from Sox,
Anthony Lim, Lewis, Zimmer and Thrun, the last of whom pushed the final two runs across with a two-RBI single into center field.
Lyon stepped back onto the bump and held back the Bruins in the fifth and sixth, but surrendered a tying run in the seventh, his last of an otherwise strong outing.
Darkness didn't loom ahead this time, but extra innings looked to be on tap until Whitman's ninth-inning heroics stepped forward again.
It took just two batters -- Lim and Lewis. Lim was hit by a pitch with one out, and then he raced all the way home for the eventual winning run on Lewis' double into the gap in left-center field.
Aidan Miller had come on for Lyon to begin the eighth and took command immediately, inducing an easy fly-out to center, followed by a pair of strikeouts.
Pitching with the lead in the bottom of the ninth Miller was just as strong, sandwiching a pair of easy infield groundouts around a can-of-corn fly-out to left field to slam the door.
Miller (1-0) faced the minimum six batters in two innings in earning his first win of the season. Lyon was solid in his 7 innings of work allowing four runs on eight hits and one walk along with three strikeouts.
Thrun and Lewis collected two RBI each in the victory, with Zimmer adding one earlier in the game.
Sox had his second consecutive three-hit game with Sunday's afternoon victory.
The Blues continue league play in their next outing, a doubleheader Tuesday in Spokane, Washington, at Whitworth University on a make-up date from a rained-out series in Spokane in late February.
