Aces have their day as Chapman splits DH with No. 19 Linfield
ORANGE, Calif. – Both the Chapman University baseball team and No. 19 Linfield College had its aces on the mound on Saturday afternoon at Hart Park, as Brian Rauh for Chapman, and Ryan Larson for Linfield each had complete-game victories. Rauh had a career-high 16 strikeouts in a 6-0 shutout for Chapman in the first game, topping his previous best of 15 strikeouts which he has had twice, most recently on Feb. 25 in a win over George Fox (Ore.). Larson came back in Game 2 and held Chapman without a hit until the eighth inning as Linfield held on for a 2-1 win.
Chapman (12-18) put up four runs in the bottom of the second inning off of Linfield starter Robert Vaughn who fell victim to consecutive errors by the infield. Both sophomore OF Connor Battaglia and junior IF Tyler Surnbrock reached on errors followed by a walk to sophomore C Taber Watson. After what would have been the third out of the inning because of the errors, junior OF James Parr came through with a grand slam to right field off of Vaughn to give Chapman a 4-0 lead. The home run for Parr was the second grand slam of his career and his second homer of the season. Parr becomes just the second Chapman player to have two grand slams in a career.
In the fourth inning, Chapman added a pair of runs to push its lead to 6-0. Sophomore IF Mark Saatzer had a sacrifice fly to score the first run, followed by an RBI single by senior OF Charlie Piro. With a 6-0 lead, Rauh shut down Linfield for the remainder of the game and now hasn't allowed a run in his last 16 1/3 innings pitched.
Parr went 3-for-3 for Chapman while sophomore IF Adam Coggan also had three hits.
Game 2: Linfield 2, Chapman 1
After going without a hit against Larson for the first seven innings and trailing 2-0, Chapman got three-straight singles in the bottom of the eighth, including an RBI single by Parr to get within one run. With runners on first and third, Larson retired Saatzer with a groundout to end the inning and Chapman's attempt at a rally.
After the first three innings, McGee matched Larson pitch for pitch as he ended with a complete-game, five-hitter, while allowing just two runs, one of which was earned.
by Chris Watts
Sports Information Assistant
Game 2 Boxscore: http://chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2011-12/boxscores/20120414_knnx.xml
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