University of Washington
Pacific
UW Belts Seven Homers In 19-12 Win
March 10, 2005 | Baseball
March 10, 2005
SEATTLE - Four days after having hit six home runs in a game to tie a school record, the Washington baseball team broke that record with seven homersThursday as the Huskies out-slugged Pacific, 19-12, at Husky Ballpark.
Shortstop Brent Lillibridge and left fielder Zach Clem each hit two home runs for the Huskies, who won their seven straight game, all at home, to improve to 11-7 on the season. Pacific hit five home runs of its own, including two from freshman Justin Baum, who also hit two in Wednesday's loss to the Huskies. Pacific scored in each of the first six innings, but suffered a loss to drop to 10-9.
Washington tied its school record with six homers in Sunday's 17-4 win over UC Santa Barbara. During its seven-game homestand, which ended with the win Thursday, the UW scored 81 runs and hit 23 balls out of the park.
"We've managed to get out of the hole we dug for ourselves," said Ken Knutson of the Huskies' win streak. "We've pitched really well and played good defense and the bats have heated up. For us, it was kind of like a second start to the season, getting to play at home."
After Pacific scored three in the first, Tiger shortstop Dale Hall led off the second with his first homer of the year to increase the Tigers' lead to 4-0.
Washington mounted a comeback in the bottom of the second. With Nick Batkoski and Matt Lane aboard on singles, DH Curt Rindal singled to drive in the Huskies' first run. After a groundout put moved the runners to second and third, senior Mike Rundle drove a double to center to cut the Tigers' lead to 4-3.
Taylor Johnson followed with his fifth homer of the year, scoring Rundle ahead of himself to put the Huskies in the lead, 5-4. The next batter, Lillibridge, then made it 6-4 when he smacked his fourth home run of the season.
Pacific first baseman Will Brindza narrowed the lead in the third when he sneaked a solo homer inside the right-field foul pole. The Tigers tied it at 6-6 in the fourth when Anthony Jackson walked, stole second and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly. The Huskies, however, struck back quickly, scoring five in the bottom of the fourth to take an 11-6 lead.
In that fourth, the Huskies got RBI singles from Johnson and Clem, a two-run single from Kyle Larsen and a sacrifice fly from Batkoski. In the top of the fifth, Pacific cut the lead to 11-7 when Baum led off with a solo shot.
Washington went back to the home run in the fifth, scoring six runs to stretch the advantage to 17-7. Lillibridge and Clem hit back-to-back homers to account for three of the runs before catcher Matt Lane capped the inning with a three-run blast, his first of the season.
Baum answered for the the visitors, smashing a long three-run homer in the top of the sixth to shrink the Husky lead to 17-10. Clem hit his second round-tripper of the game in the bottom of the seventh to make it 18-10.
In the eighth, Matt Berezay hit a two-run homer to close out the scoring for Pacific. Larsen, the UW's senior first baseman, hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to finish up for the Huskies.
Clem led the Huskies with four hits and three runs batted in. Johnson, Lillibridge and Lane each had three RBI. Baum drove in five runs to lead the Pacific offense. Husky reliever Kyle Parker (4-2) got the win while Luke Massetti (4-1) suffered his first loss of the year.
The Huskies will take the next eight days off for finals before returning to action with a three-game series at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo March 18-20. Washington then opens Pac-10 play March 24-26 at Arizona.
LINESCORE Non-Conference Washington 19, Pacific 12 Pacific 311 113 020 -- 12 15 2 Washington 060 561 01X -- 19 18 1 Luke Massetti, Eric Stolp (4), Gregg Reynolds (4), Kyle Kennedy (6), Matthew Pena (7), Brad Schultz (7) and Brandon Gottier. Matt Kasser, Kyle Parker (2), Brandon McKerney (6), Matt Hague (7), Josh Conover (9) and Matt Lane, D.J. Neyens (8). W - Parker (4-2). L - Massetti (4-1). 2B - UW, Zach Clem, Mike Rundle. HR - Pacific, Dale Hall (1), Will Brindza (1), Justin Baum 2 (6), Matt Berezay (5); UW, Brent Lillibridge 2 (5), Taylor Johnson (5), Zach Clem 2 (4), Lane (1), Kyle Larsen (3). T - 3:24. A - 360.
