Concordia's Cole Shidaki went a combined 5-for-9 from the plate with a run scored and three runs batted in during the Cavs' sweep of Simpson on Saturday.
Cavs' Bats Erupt in Sweep of Simpson
BOX SCORES - GAME 1 - GAME 2
PORTLAND—After a tough series against the University of British Columbia last weekend, the Concordia baseball team returned to .500 in NAIA West play with an impressive sweep of Simpson Saturday.
The Cavs beat the Red Hawks 7-1 in the first game Saturday, before topping the Red Hawks 12-3 in the second game.
Concordia improved to 13-15 overall and 5-5 in the NAIA West with the wins, while Simpson dropped to 1-22 overall and 0-10 in the NAIA West.
Both teams will conclude their four-game series tomorrow, March 24, with a doubleheader at 11 a.m.
Game 1—Concordia 7, Simpson 1
The Cavaliers jumped out on the Red Hawks early in the first game Saturday, scoring a run in the first and four more in the fourth en route to a 7-1 win.
Ryne Briley singled to center to plate C.J. Watson for the Cavs’ run in the first, while the team’s first five batters reached in the fourth as the team rallied for four more runs in the inning. Jordan Keeker led off the fourth with a single and came around immediately as Carl Beckert followed with a triple to right-center field. Ben Talbot then walked during the next at bat, putting runners on the corners with still no outs in the inning. That brought up Jimmy Sanchez for the Cavs, who laid a bunt down for a squeeze play with Beckert on third. Sanchez’s bunt easily plated Beckert on the play, and the Simpson’s pitcher sailed the throw to first to get Sanchez, allowing the Cavs’ Julian Burgess, who subbed in for Talbot at first, to score all the way from first while Sanchez advanced all the way to third. All told, Sanchez’s bunt gave the Cavs a 4-0 lead, and Blake Drake capped the scoring during the next at bat when he scored Sanchez on a single through the left side of the infield.
The Cavs then added two final runs in the bottom of the sixth to go up 7-0. The Cavs went back to the squeeze play for their first run of the inning, with Drake laying down the bunt this time around. Drake reached for a single on his bunt, however, while Burgess, who subbed in for Talbot again after Talbot hit an infield single, scored from third on the play. Cole Shidaki then brought in the Cavs’ second run of the inning a few batters later as he singled to right-center field to score Sanchez.
Meanwhile, while the Cavs’ offense scored early and often, CU starting pitcher Alex Bos threw the first eight innings of the game for the Cavs and only gave up one run and four hits to the Red Hawks. Bos has now only given up two earned runs in his past 36 innings pitched, giving the senior transfer a 0.5 ERA in his last six appearances for the Cavs.
Bos’ performance helped the Cavs outhit the Red Hawks 15-4 in the game. Shidaki led the Cavs with three hits, going 3-for-5 from the plate with a run batted in. Besides him, Drake, Watson, Beckert and Talbot all also had two hits for the Cavs.
On the flip side, Tyler Provost led the Red Hawks from the plate with two hits in the game.
Game 2—Concordia 12, Simpson 3
Simpson jumped on the Cavs with two runs in the top of the first in the second game Saturday, but Cavs answered with 11 runs over the second and third innings to lead them to a 12-3 win in the nightcap.
The Cavs first went ahead with five runs in the bottom of the second, with all five runs coming with one out in the inning. Carl Beckert scored the first run of the game for the Cavs as he came around on a single from Christian Lichtenthaler. That cut the Red Hawks’ lead to one at 2-1, while Sheldon Austria soon put the Cavs up for good with a two-run triple to right-center field.
The Cavs added two more runs to go up 5-2 before the end of the second, then scored six more runs in the bottom of the third to go up 11-2. Ben Talbot and Cole Shidaki doubled to highlight the six-run inning for the Cavs, with Shidaki’s double scoring both Austria and Blake Drake.
The teams then traded singles run in the fifth, capping the scoring in the game at 12-3. Both defenses settled in after the fifth inning as the teams combined for only three hits after that point in the game.
Eddie Crowe threw the first six innings of the game for the Cavs and picked up his first win of the season for the Cavs in the process.
Austria led the Cavs from the plate, meanwhile, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two runs batted in. Besides Austria, Shidaki and C.J. Watson added two hits each for the Cavs as Shidaki went 2-for-4, while Watson went 2-for-5 from the plate. Both Shidaki and Watson also each scored a run and added two runs batted in.
On the flip side, Tyler Provost and Dylan Mumford led the Red Hawks offensively as each went 2-for-3 from the plate.