Small ball yields big results

Apr 3, 2013, 12:00 AM

At least for a night, everything came together for the Washington baseball team. Trevor Dunlap threw six innings of two-hit ball, and six Huskies had multiple hits as the UW (7-19) ended a three-game skid with a 14-1 rout of crosstown rival Seattle University at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue, Wash. Dunlap was excellent in his second start of the season. After allowing a leadoff single to open the game, Dunlap retired 17-straight batters before Landon Cray homered with two outs in the sixth inning. Dunlap gave up just two hits in six innings, striking out six and walking none. “Trevor was outstanding tonight,” head coach Lindsay Meggs said. “He threw fastballs for strikes and located his fastball well. He threw downhill, worked quickly, and did exactly what we needed him to do, just give us some innings.” Seattle starter Andrew Olson took the loss after giving up seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits in five innings. The UW lineup collected 20 hits, 19 of which were singles, on the night, with all nine UW starters picking up base hits. The Huskies had eight more hits than they did over their last three games combined, all losses to Oregon. But Tuesday night, the UW offense broke out in a big way. “It was important to us to come out here and take advantage of the opportunity,” Meggs said. “We put the ball in play all night and took a lot of good swings.” The Huskies opened the scoring in the second inning. Designated hitter Ryan Wiggins led off with a single up the middle, and he moved to third on back-to-back bunts. Then Ty Afenir’s hard ground ball to third took a bad hop off Redhawk third baseman Cullen Hendrickson and bounced into left for a run-scoring single. In the fifth, the Huskies broke the game open with three runs off Olson. Jayce Ray led off the inning with a single, and moved to second when Hendrickson fumbled Joe Meggs’ bunt attempt, which allowed Meggs to reach. Then Robert Pehl singled to left center with both runners in motion, scoring Ray and advancing Joe Meggs to third, with Pehl advancing to second on a throwing error. Back-to-back sacrifice flies from Trevor Mitsui and Wiggins brought both runners home to give the UW a 4-0 edge. “To come out and put some hits together and string some offense feels great,” Pehl said. “Guys were just going up there and taking quality at bats. Everyone, no matter if it’s the nine hitter, the one hitter, or the middle of the lineup, had runners in scoring position and were getting them in.” The UW continued to add runs in the sixth. Andrew Ely led off with a single to right, and Afenir beat out a bunt down the third base line. Freshman Braden Bishop then singled to center to score Ely and drive Olson from the game. Ray then moved the runners over with the Huskies’ eighth bunt of the game. After Joe Meggs struck out, Pehl singled to left to drive in two more runs to bring the score to 7-0. After Cray’s home run in the sixth, the UW tacked on another the following inning when Austin Rei drove an RBI single to left to bring the score to 8-1. The UW added six more in the ninth when Joe Meggs’ ground ball ricocheted off the Seattle pitcher for an RBI single and Erik Forgione was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Pinch hitter Brian Wolfe then singled home two more runs to bring the lead to 12-1. After Wiggins walked, pinch hitter Parker Guinn doubled to right to bring home two more runs. The UW will try to continue its hot hitting this weekend when it travels to Malibu, Calif., for a three-game set with Pepperdine. Reach reporter Daniel Rubens at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @drubens12

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