The Bruin boys traveled to Medford to take on the 6-0 Cascade Christian Challengers Tuesday afternoon, in what would turn out to be a battle of defenses.
The Bruin boys would start with their bats on the road in Medford, managing only a walk in the top of the first before Challenger pitching struck-out the side to leaving one of the basepaths. Head coach Keith Wallin sent senior right-hander, Jason DeShon to the mound for the Bruins, who returned the favor, allowing one walk before retiring the side.
Both teams would mirror each other offensively going into the bottom of the third inning, with Cascade Christian shutting down Bruin batters and DeShon keeping the Challengers scoreless going into Cascade Christians half of the third. Facing the top of the Challenger line-up in the bottom of the third, DeShon walked two and allowed 2 hits to score 2 Challenger runs before striking out the side on ten pitches.
However, the Bruin bats remained silent in the top of the fourth, going down after two strike-outs and a grounder to third, failing to put any runs on the board. DeShon stepped up in the Challenger half of the fourth, sitting the Cascade Christian offense down in order drawing a grounder, an infield fly to second and a strike-out to send the Bruins to the plate trailing 0-5 in the top of the 5th.
Sophomore Austin Dietrich would lead-off the top of the fifth for the Bruins, getting on with a line drive double to left field, however, Harms, Christensen and Valliere would go down in order to end the Bruin threat, again failing to get a run across the plate and leaving one run stranded at third. Cascade Christian would put together two singles to add another run and seal the 0-3 Challenger win.
The Bruins will host the Challengers for the two remaining games in the series Friday afternoon, with the first pitch at 3:00pm.
