Saints Run Into a Wall as Lutes Win 7-0
PARKLAND - Scott Wall allowed only four hits and struck out nine in seven innings of work as Pacific Lutheran shut out visiting Saint Martin's, 7-0, in a non-conference baseball game played Sunday afternoon on the PLU field.
Wall, a junior from Yakima, dominated the Saints (0-3) in his seven inning of work. He allowed only five baserunners and shut down the few scoring chances that the visitors could muster. Of Wall's nine strikeouts, six were looking, and he fanned the side in the fifth inning. Bret Handy, a junior left-hander, allowed one hit and struck out three in the final two innings for the Lutes.
PLU (3-0) got on the board with a pair of runs in the second. Ethan Ottemiller led off with a single and Carl Benton drew a walk. Ottemiller raced home on a Sammy Davis single and Benton scored on a double by Josh Takayoshi, though Davis was gunned down on a close play at the home.
The Lutes added two more runs in both the fourth and sixth innings. In the fourth, Brock Gates led off with a single and came around to score on a throwing error following Jaron Iwakami's bunt single. Benton later reached on a single and scored his second run of the game following back-to-back singles by Davis and Dan Johansen. In the sixth inning, Ottemiller led off with a double, Benton drew a walk and Davis was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Blaine Myers, running for Ottemiller, scored on a ground out by Johansen and Corey Moore, running for Benton, came in on Takayoshi's sacrifice fly.
PLU added its final run in the eighth when Takayoshi was hit by a pitch, moved up a base on Ben Shively's single and then scored on Ryan Aratani's double.
Davis, Shively and Aratani all had a trio of the Lutes' 16 hits. In three games this season, all wins, the Lutes have collected 45 hits in 25 innings.
Michael McIver took the pitching loss for the Saints, allowing five runs, all earned, on 13 hits in five innings of work.
Pacific Lutheran returns to action on Thursday when it plays the first of four non-conference games against California schools in Anthem, Ariz. The Lutes face Occidental on Thursday, Cal Lutheran on Friday, Whittier on Saturday and La Verne on Sunday.
- PLU -
