The Pacific University baseball team erased a 3-0 deficit with a grand slam by senior
Eli Wisdom in the third inning en route a 14-3 win in an elimination game over Pacific Lutheran on Saturday.
The Boxers (25-17) were behind early for the second-straight game before Wisdom hit his first home run of his final campaign in the Red and Black. The Boxers scored the next 10 runs, including nine in the sixth inning for the win.
The Lutes (22-16) took the lead in the second inning on a three-run home run by Jordan Haworth off Pacific starter
Casey Brown.
Facing a 3-0 deficit, in the third,
Chase Anderson led off the inning with a walk. Then, after a strikeout,
Ian Blair doubled down the left-field line to put runners on second and third. Next,
Ryan Krout reached base on a walk to prompt a PLU pitching change. Wisdom greeted the new pitcher for the Lutes, Andrew Curran, with a grand slam – the second of the week by Pacific hitters, to put Pacific ahead 4-3.
After a scoreless fourth inning by the two teams, Krout added to the lead with a RBI single to put Pacific up by two, 5-3 in the fifth inning. The Boxers and its offense unleashed a flurry with a nine-run sixth inning on seven hits as 14 Pacific batters came to bat in the inning. Among the big blows were a two-RBI double by
Jacob Igawa and a two-RBI single by Krout.
Brown went the distance for Pacific, throwing his sixth complete game, striking out 12 and allowing eight hits to raise his record to 7-2.
Offensively, Krout had two hits with three RBI and Igawa had two hits with two RBI as seven Boxers had a hit and six recorded a RBI.
The win advanced the Boxers to an elimination game against host #1 seed Whitworth. The two teams reached the eighth inning before the game was suspended due to darkness. The contest will resume on Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
