Concordia's C.J. Watson went 2-for-3 with a run scored and a run batted in during the Cavs' 5-1 win over Willamette on Tuesday.
Cavs Declaw Bearcats, 5-1
BOX SCORE
PORTLAND—The Concordia baseball team beat Willamette University 5-1 as it stepped out of conference for a single game Tuesday.
The win evened the Cavs’ overall record at 11-11 this season, while the Bearcats dropped to 6-10 overall.
Concordia played with a lead for most of the game Tuesday as the Cavs scored four runs in the bottom of the first.
Blake Drake started the rally for the Cavs when he advanced all the way to third on a throwing error from the Bearcats’ starting pitcher. Drake then immediately came home for the first run of the game when C.J. Watson hit a single to right-center during the next Cavalier at bat. Watson didn’t spend long on the base paths either, though, as he came home when Jordan Keeker hit the first of three triples in the game for the Cavs one batter later.
Walks to Cole Shidaki and Ryne Briley would then load the bases for catcher Ben Talbot with one out in the inning. Talbot cashed in on the loaded bases, sending a sacrifice fly to left to plate Keeker for the Cavs’ third run. Christian Lichtenthaler then brought home the final run of the inning when he followed Talbot’s sacrifice fly with a single up the middle of the infield that scored Shidaki.
Once with the lead, the Cavalier pitching gave the Bearcats little chance to comeback as they held Willamette to just three hits.
Harrison McGhee pitched three scoreless innings to start things for the Cavs, while Gage Aker, Blake Evetts and Christian Bannister would follow with two innings apiece.
Evetts gave up the only run to the Bearcats in the game when the Bearcats’ Austin Hagarty connected for a two-out double to left-center, the Bearcat’s only extra-base hit of the game. Hagarty’s hit did not lead into any sort of rally for the Bearcats, however, as the Cavs’ Drake gunned Hagarty down from the outfield as he tried to stretch the double into a triple.
The Cavs got the run back in the bottom half of the inning, too, as Carl Beckert hit a one-out triple that was within feet of clearing the right-field fence. If Beckert’s ball had gone over, it would have been the first home run of the season at Porter Park, but it left the Cavs in a good position, regardless. Beckert came home during the next Cavalier at bat as Briley hit a sacrifice fly to center.
Bannister came in for the Cavs after that and struck out four straight batters between the eighth and ninth innings as he closed things out with ease.
Offensivley, Watson, Shidaki and Lichtenthaler all had two hits in the game to lead the Cavs from the plate. Watson finished the game 2-for-3 with a run scored and a run batted in, while Shidaki finished 2-for-3 with a run scored and Lichtenthaler finished 2-fo-2 with a run batted in.
The win on Tuesday was the Cavs’ second over the Bearcats this season after they beat the Bearcats 10-2 at home back on Feb. 21.
The Cavs will next play this Friday, March 15 when they play a four-game NAIA West series at the University of British Columbia. The Cavs will open the series with a game at 2 p.m. on Friday, before playing a doubleheader at 12 p.m. the next day, Saturday, March 16. The Cavs and the Thunderbirds will then conclude their series with a game at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 17.
Concordia won’t play its next home games until Saturday, March 23, when it hosts Simpson for a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.