Baseball Wolves Top Bearcats, 8-2

WOU gets win in 2006 home opener, improve to 9-6 on the season

Salem-News.com Sports

(MONMOUTH) - After 14 consecutive road games, Western Oregon enjoyed its 2006 home debut this afternoon with a 8-2 non-conference baseball win over Willamette at the WOU Baseball Field.

The victory was also officially the first for interim head coach Jeremiah Robbins. Long-time leader Terry Baumgartner resigned as the WOU mentor yesterday.

Eight different players rapped eight hits for the hosts, while Robbins sent six different WOU pitchers to the mound.

The Bearcats struck first, scoring a run in the first inning without the benefit of a hit, and then added another unearned counter in the second inning. But the Wolves took the lead for good with three plate crossings in the bottom half of the second, taking advantage of two Willamette errors. Travis Coursey led off the inning with a double and Eric Beasley later added an RBI-single.

The Wolves would add single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, and closed the door in the seventh with three scores. In that inning, Paul Fisher had an RBI double and Matt Skundrick drove in a run with a single up the middle.

Jacob Cathey pitched two innings of perfect relief to pick up the committee win, allowing only one hit and fanning four. Adam Hoffman also went two innings and did not give up a hit, while Nick Waechter struck out the side in the ninth.

WOU will return to NCAA Division II west region action this weekend, hosting San Francisco State in a four-game series. Friday`s single game will start the action, with the first pitch set for 1:00 PM.