PARKLAND - One week after blasting Pacific to the tune of 52
runs and 63 hits in a three-game sweep, Pacific Lutheran continued
its offensive roll on Saturday by drubbing visiting Willamette,
24-4 and 13-4, in a pair of Northwest Conference baseball contests.
PLU's two wins, combined with Whitworth's doubleheader sweep of
conference-leading Linfield, catapaults the Lutes over
the Wildcats and into first place in the Northwest
Conference standings. PLU is now 7-1 in the conference, 16-5
overall, while Linfield falls to 8-3 in the NWC, 16-7 overall.
The Lutes' Saturday afternoon hitting spree included 23 hits in
the opener and 16 more in the nightcap. Junior centerfielder Ryan Aratani was 7-for-8 in the doubleheader and was on base 10 times in
his 11 total plate appearances. In the opener, he was
5-for-6 with four runs scored and five runs batted in, and in the
nightcap he had two singles, three walks and scored four more runs.
Aratani was by no means the only PLU player with impressive
offensive numbers. Brock Gates, who had a pair of singles in the
first game, had three hits including a double and triple, scored
three runs and drove in four in the nightcap. Dan Johansen
collected five hits, scored five runs and drove in three, and Ethan
Ottemiller had four hits and drove in three in the two games.
In addition to the hitting stars, the Lutes got solid pitching
from both starters. Trey Watt improved his season record to 5-0 in
the opener, allowing two earned runs on six hits while striking out
five and walking one. Max Beatty and Nathan Shoup did mop up work
behind Watt. In the second contest, Robert Bleecker improved to
4-1, giving up three earned runs on eight hits while fanning five
and walking one in six innings. Nathan Eisenhauser pitched the last
three innings, giving up a run on four hits, to collect his first
save of the season.
Willamette had its own measure of success on offense, collecting
10 hits in the opener and 12 more in the second game. Tyson Giza
had four hits, three in the second game, and both Doug Bloom and
T.C. Lee had three hits for the day.
The Bearcats took a 1-0 lead in the opener on doubles by Giza
and Mitchell Rowan, but the Lutes came right back with two runs in
the first and eight more in the second to open up a 10-1 lead. They
added five in the sixth, three in the seventh and six more in the
eighth in rolling up their highest run total in a single
game this season.
PLU's offensive success allowed head coach Geoff Loomis to give
six reserves at bats during the game and all of them had at least
one hit, with Blaine Myers and Elliott Shum both getting a pair of
singles.
In the second game, the Lutes scored twice in the second on
Ottemiller's single and added two more in the third on a two-run
double by Gates. Willamette got two back in the top of the fourth
on a two-run single by Dylan Summer, but the Lutes answered
with two in bottom of the fourth on Jaron Iwakami's two-run
homer, his first as a collegian. PLU added four runs in the fifth,
highlighted by Gates' two-run triple, to break the game
open.
The teams conclude their conference series at noon on Sunday
with a single nine-inning game starting at noon.
- PLU -
