Baseball | 3/11/2011 5:09:39 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 [Game 1 box score] [Game 2 box score]

MONMOUTH, Ore. - The Western Oregon baseball team received a pair of strong starts by their pitchers to come away with a doubleheader split with No. 8 Chico State on Friday (Mar. 10).

The Wolves won the opener 4-1 behind senior Michael Ward. In game two, Grady Wood kept WOU right in the game it could not come up with the clutch hit en route dropping the nightcap 5-2.

Western Oregon is now 11-7 on the season and continues to lead the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 4-0 record. The split places the region's second ranked team, Chico State, at 12-3 on the year (6-2 CCAA).

Bo Folkinga had four of the Wolves' 12 hits on the afternoon. He went 2-for-3 in each contest and added a run, a walk and an RBI.

Game 1
Michael Ward (3-1) surrendered just one unearned run and five hits to lead Western Oregon to its 17th straight home victory. He struck out four and walked only one in 7.1 innings of work.

The only run scored on Ward came in the top of the third inning. Cody Foster reached base on an error to leadoff the inning then came around to score on a two-out single.

Western Oregon would answer the run by Chico State with three runs of its own in the bottom of the inning to stake Ward to a 3-1 lead. Griffin Boyd started the inning with a single, and after a sacrifice bunt moved him to second, Grant Glover reached on an error putting runners at first and second. After one more out was recorded, Daniel Dillard came to the plate and on a 2-0 count doubled deep into the left-center field gap to drive in both runners. Dillard would come into score two pitches later when Bo Folkinga shot the ball over the second baseman into swallow right field.

Ward would run with the lead as he sat Chico State down in order in two of the next three innings. He did not run into trouble until the eighth inning when two Wildcats reached base with one out.

"Ward came out and filled up the strike zone with three different pitches, and competed very well," Western Oregon head coach Jeremiah Robbins said. "We got some key hits behind him and some key pitches to get out of innings."

Kirk Lind was then called upon out of the bullpen. He came in with two inherited runners on base but did not allow either to score. First he got Ian McKay to pop to shortstop, and then after a single loaded the bases, he induced pinch hitter Justin Manci to fly out harmlessly to shallow left field. Lind then pitched a perfect ninth inning for his fourth save of the season.

"Lind came in during a pressure situation and shut the door, then closed it out in the ninth," continued Robbins. "Those are the kinds of efforts we are going to need all weekend from our pitchers against a quality team like Chico."

Griffin Boyd and Folkinga each recorded multi-hit games with two singles apiece.

Western Oregon also took advantage of its scoring opportunities, as it put four runs on the board and left just five runners on base compared to 10 for Chico State.

Game 2
No. 8 Chico State broke a 1-1 tie with one in the fifth and added three insurance runs in the sixth to earn a 5-2 win.

Matt Anderson had the go-ahead double with two outs in the fifth. Ben Manlove would add the big hit in the next inning with a double off the wall.

"When you leave balls over the strike zone you aren't going to beat a quality team like Chico," explained Robbins. "We didn't get the efforts we need in the second game."

Grady Wood pitched well despite taking the loss. He went the first 5.2 innings allowing seven hits and four runs. However, He had allowed just one run prior to the fifth inning.

The Wolves had opportunities to put runs on the board early in the game but came up empty with two runners on in both the second and fourth inning.

"Early in the game we had some opportunities but we couldn't sac bunt and weren't getting good leads," said Robbins. "Just the little things mount and become big things. If we do those little things maybe they aren't in that position if we have runners on second. We just flat need to be better than we were that second game. Disappointed in that performance after the way we played in game one."

Next games
These teams will continue their four-game series tomorrow at noon. The final game of the series is schedule for Sunday at 11:00 a.m.