EUGENE, ORE. — The Bushnell Beacons opened their season with a doubleheader against the Simpson University Red Hawks (0-4), who traveled from Redding, California. The Eugene weather was surprisingly favorable for baseball, as clear days in January are a rare commodity in the Willamette Valley.
The Beacons come into the season as playoff hopefuls, ranked third in the preseason coaches poll for the Cascade Collegiate Conference.
Game 1
Bushnell started lefty pitcher Austin Wolfe, a junior from Beverton, Ore. The RedHawks trotted out senior Gage Hoyle, who toes the rubber at 6-foot-2.
The Beacons got in trouble in the top of the first with runners on first and second and no outs. Wolfe then got Red Hawks slugger Cayden Lee to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. With two strikes on first baseman Owen Hayes, Bushnell thought they were out of it, but leadoff hitter Jackson Berry stole home when Wolfe looked away from the plate. It surprised the entire stadium as the Red Hawks took a 1-0 lead.
The response from the Beacons was shut down in the bottom of the first as they stranded Nate Stevens on second after a deep fly ball was caught off the bat of Mason Millar. In the top of the second, Wolfe let the leadoff man reach again, this time a double to deep center field hit by right fielder Bo Valladao. After a nice strikeout by Wolfe, Red Hawks third baseman Nui Sato ripped a double in the left-center gap, driving in Valladao. Sato was then driven home by freshman Duke Aloy to bring the Red Hawks' lead to three.
Simpson jumped on Wolfe again in the top of the third with the first two hitters reaching on singles, and after a fly ball, the runner on second advanced. Valladao smacked his second double this time down the third baseline to plate two runs. This prompted a pitching change; reliever Blake Stavros entered the game and gave up a massive two-run home run to second baseman Andrew Sharral, who deposited the ball over the fence in left-center. An error by the third baseman, then a double by Aloy, put runners on second and third, who were then hit home by shortstop Eric Mora on a line-drive single.
This made Bushnell make another mid-inning pitching change to righty reliever Taylor Pearce, who struck out the first batter he faced. Mario Catalan came up a second time and doubled to put runners at second and third, who were then hit home on an opposite-field double by Cayden Lee, bringing the Red Hawks' lead to 11-0. After a walk, Valladao hammered his third double of the game and tallied his third RBI of the game. Pearce was able to strike out the next batter, ending the top of the third with Bushnell down by 12.
Hoyle got two quick outs for Simpson when Bushnell got two on, but the rally was silenced when Hoyle got center fielder Albert Jenning to pop out. Mason Koonzt came in for Bushnell on the mound and secured their first one-two-three inning of the game. The Beacons’ bats plated a run in the bottom of the fourth on a Josh Miyazawa RBI single through the left side.
The top of the fifth saw an amazing play by Dylan Carson to secure the second out, but the Beacons were not in the clear. Lee blasted a tape measure home run to dead center, traveling 415 feet over the batter's eye to bring the Red Hawks' lead to 13-1. Bushnell responded with a home run of its own as Jennings crushed a ball 416 feet for a two-run blast to cut the deficit to 10 in the bottom of the fifth.
The Beacons surrendered another run in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI single, but were able to minimize the damage after.
The bottom of the inning saw pinch-hitter Broderick Buhr collect his first collegiate hit with a double off the center-field wall. He and the runner ahead of him were both brought in with sac flies to cut the lead to nine runs. The bases were loaded after an error and a walk, but nothing came of it as the Beacons trailed by nine.
Matthew Estrada was able to come in and shut down the Red Hawks’ line-up, producing just the second scoreless inning Bushnell had pitched. In the bottom of the inning, the Beacons pushed another run over with a sacrifice fly. With the bases loaded and two out, Jennings stepped up to bat versus the new Red Hawks pitcher, and with the first pitch he saw, he lined a ball over the left-center field fence for a clutch grand slam, cutting the deficit to only four. The next two batters reached on walks, followed by back-to-back RBI singles by Carson and pinch-hitter Eli Pupo, as Bushnell only trailed by two.
The Beacons brought in righty freshman Griffin Sanchez, but the first two Simpson hitters saw him well. The first drew a walk, then the nine-hole hitter Mora crushed a crowd-silencing two-run home run to dead center. The next hitter got plunked, followed by an out, then another plunking, putting runners at the corners. But Sanchez was able to escape the trouble.
Bushnell scratched across another run with a Stevens sac fly. With runners on the corners and two out, Millar represented the game-tying run. On the 11th pitch of the at-bat, he lined a shot to right that was miraculously caught by a diving Valladao.
Sanchez was able to hold the Red Hawks at bay to give Bushnell a chance at the comeback victory, down by three. The first batter, Nye, reached with a bloop single and was followed by Carson, who ripped an RBI double to score Nye and cut the lead to two. A pop-up and back-to-back strikeouts ended the game 16-13, with the Red Hawks taking the first half of the doubleheader.
Game 2
The starter for Bushnell in game two was Loreto Siniscalchi, the right-hander who hails from north of the border. Toeing the rubber on the other side for Simpson was Daniel Aceto, a righty junior. The Beacons threw their lineup in a blender for Game 2, while the Red Hawks only swapped out their catcher.
After an uneventful top of the inning, Mason Millar was able to drive in a leadoff walk on an infield single. After an error, Max Richards laced a two-run double to right-center, giving the Beacons an early 3-0 lead.
The Beacons capitalized on another leadoff walk in the bottom of the second with a rocket double to the right-center field gap by leadoff hitter Josh Miyazawa, but couldn't muster more.
After popping what looked to be a sure-fire out in the air, Chase Nye made his way to second as the Red Hawks’ defenders lost it in the lights and secured himself a double. Nye moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball to shortstop. They tacked on one more on a Miyazawa sacrifice fly to bring their lead to six.
Simpson responded in the top of the fourth, collecting its first hit of the game on a double. On the next pitch, Owen Hayes deposited the ball into the night over the left-center field fence for a two-run homer to cut into the Beacon lead. With runners on second and third, Bushnell made a pitching change, putting in sophomore Hunter Schwenk to take over with one out. Schwenk made it sketchy by loading the bases but got out of the jam with a strikeout.
Bushnell threatened in the bottom of the inning, but the Red Hawks were able to escape the bases-loaded jam. Simpson brought in lefty Brady Glenn to get out of trouble. The fifth came and went with easy half innings for both pitchers.
With two outs in the top of the sixth, Simpson's back-up catcher, Brandon Zanni, stepped up with a runner on first. Zanni blasted a ball over the left-center field fence for a two-run dinger, cutting their deficit to only two runs.
The Beacons squandered back-to-back singles to leadoff the inning, striking out twice with the bases loaded. They left runners on base in every inning except for the fifth, where nobody reached.
Schwenk remained on the mound for the seventh to face the bottom of the Red Hawks’ order. He was not able to thwart them as two walks and a single loaded the bases, prompting a pitching change to Chase Marshall, the righty. He let the runner on third score on a wild pitch, and the runner on second scored on a base knock through the left side, tying the game with no outs. A strikeout was followed by a crazy double play where the ball was lined right to Marshall's glove, and he doubled the runner-up at second to escape the inning still tied.
The bottom of the eighth started with a bang, and Albert Jennings, lefty on lefty, took the first pitch and smashed it, almost hitting the scoreboard in right-center field. A single and a steal triggered the hook for Glenn as he left, having pitched 4 ⅓ innings, only allowing one earned run. Simpson was able to limit the damage to only that one run.
Marshall stayed out for the top of the ninth for the Beacons. He secured a flyout, then walked the next batter before getting Hayes to ground into a game-ending double play. Bushnell won the second game 7-6.
“We have a lot of belief in each other, that's the message that we talk about every day,” Jennings said after his game-winning home run.
Head Coach Jamie Womack praised his team's toughness after the doubleheader split.
“We were able to prove that, you know, we're never out of a game, no matter the deficit, and that gives us confidence moving forward.” These two teams will do it again on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. on the same field, with both looking to take the series win.