BOX SCORE

Anthem, Ariz. – Brent Schaekel drove in a pair of runs, but the Concordia University Texas baseball team fell to George Fox by a 5-3 score on Saturday, Feb. 18 in its third game of the Arizona Desert Classic at Boulder Creek High School. The Tornados suffered just their second loss in 10 games to open the 2012 season.

After George Fox (1-7) pushed across a run in the bottom of the second, Concordia answered right back in the top of the third by getting an RBI single from Alec Carter with two outs. The Bruins went ahead again in the fourth by scoring twice with Danny Clifford and Nick Benish driving in Taylor Hunter and David Greenstein, but the Tornados had another answer in the late innings.

Schaekel, who is the only Tornado to start every game, belted a two-run single in the seventh that scored Foster Bowman, who singled and reached on a fielder's choice, respectively. Batting with two runners in scoring position, Matt McManemin, however, flied out to right to end the inning before George Fox added two more in the bottom of the eighth to escape with its first victory of the season.

Reliever Alex Keenan got the victory on the mound for George Fox, improving his record to 1-0 on the young season. He allowed one hit and no runs while striking out two in the last two innings. Concordia's Bryant Hernandez suffered the loss and fell to 0-1 after yielding two hits and one run while failing to record an out.

Concordia (8-2) concludes play at the Arizona Desert Classic against LaVerne at Surprise Stadium, the Spring Training home of the Texas Rangers, tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. CST.
-agate-
Concordia (8-2)       001     000     200     3     5     1
George Fox (1-7)     010     200     02x     5    12    4
     Concordia: Colin Butschek, Jacob Spelbring (4), Sean Thompson (6), Bryant Hernandez (8), Austin Rupert (8) and Collin Janssen.
     George Fox: Taylor Hill, Connor Harris (8), Alex Keenan (8) and Josh Rapacz.