Baseball blanks Bruins for eighth straight win
ORANGE, Calif. – The winning streak continued and another streak began to form as the Chapman University baseball team defeated visiting George Fox 10-0 for its eighth win in a row. It was also the second consecutive shutout for the Panthers' pitching staff, led by junior Christian Cosby on the mound today.
Cosby threw seven strong innings of shutout baseball. He allowed just three hits and struck out three batters without issuing a walk in the dominant performance. It was the longest outing of his career and one of the most dominant as he picked up his fourth win of the season and lowered his ERA to just 2.57.
The junior righty sat down the first six Bruins in order and worked around a leadoff double in the third to preserve a scoreless game until that point. The Panthers scratched out a run in the bottom half as sophomore Joe Jimenez singled to right, moved up on a wild pitch and later scored on sophomore Aaron Wong's single up the middle.
George Fox (15-12) had a leadoff single in the fourth but it was erased on a bizarre double play. Matt Voelzke was hit by a pitch to start the Bruins sixth and reached third on Austin Baek's bunt single but the Panthers turned another double play to end the threat. Junior Jarod Penniman robbed Kyler Brudwick of an RBI-hit with a leaping grab and then fired to first to double up Baek and end the inning.
The Panther continued to do damage with the bats, putting up runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth. The Panthers made the Bruins pay for an error in the fourth as Penniman followed the error with an RBI-single and Jimenez followed with an RBI-groundout. Senior Conner Larkin brought home another run in the fifth and the Panthers followed with six runs in the sixth to jump out to a big lead.
Two Bruin errors in the inning led to the six unearned runs. Senior Gavin Blodgett brought home two when he smoked a bases-loaded double to left center. Penniman plated the final three after an error and walk reloaded the bases with a double that skipped just inside the third base bag and rolled into the corner.
Senior Brad Steiner and freshman Cody Turner finished out the shutout in the eighth and ninth, respectively, as each used a double play to escape unscathed.
Penniman was 2-for-4 with four RBIs to lead the offense while Blodgett also had a multi-hit day. The Panthers' pitching has not allowed more than three runs in a game during the Panthers current, eight-game win streak. In fact, no team has scored more than three runs over the last 10 games, dating back to March 11. With back-to-back shutouts, Panther pitchers have strung together a 21.1 inning scoreless streak.
The Panthers put all their streaks on the line on Friday when they get back into SCIAC play against Cal Lutheran. The first of the three-game conference series begins at 2:30 p.m. at Hart Park before shifting to Thousand Oaks, Calif. on Saturday.
By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director
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