PARKLAND - In a game that saw a total of 28 runs and 29 hits,
Pacific Lutheran finished a Northwest Conference baseball series
sweep of visiting Whitworth with an 18-10 win on a sunny and warm
Sunday afternoon.
Winning its seventh consecutive game, PLU stayed atop the
Northwest Conference standing with a 13-2 record, and it is now
23-6 overall. After losing all three games of the series, the
Pirates are now 5-10 in the conference and 8-21 for the season.
Pacific Lutheran scored four runs in both the second and third
innings and added six more in the fifth, but all of those runs were
needed as Whitworth scored all 10 of its runs from the third
through sixth innings.
PLU took a 4-0 lead in the second on Corey Moore's two-run
double and RBI singles by Ethan Ottemiller and Jaron Iwakami.
Whitworth put three on the board in the top of the third on a
two-run single by Landon Scott and a run-scoring ground out by Kyle
Krustangel.
The Lutes added four more runs in the bottom of the third on RBI
singles by Moore and Ben Shively and a two-run triple by Iwakami,
but again the Pirates came back with a three-spot in the next
inning. They had three hits in the uprising, but the first run
scored on a wild pitch and the next two on a throwing error.
Whitworth tied the game at 8-8 with two runs in the top of the
fifth, those coming on a run-scoring double by JR Jarrell
and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Durant.
The Lutes regained the momentum with a six-run outburst in the
bottom of the fifth inning. Dan Johansen plated the first two runs
with a base hit, and Ryan Aratani added a run-producing single.
Moore, who finished the game with four hits and five RBI, drove in
two runs with a double and Shively wrapped up the rally with a
sacrifice fly.
The visiting Pirates managed two more runs in the sixth on Dan
Belet's two-run double, but the Lutes answered with a run in the
sixth and three more in the seventh to put the game away. PLU
scored on a wild pitch in the sixth, and in the seventh Shively
drove in a run with a single and Josh Takayoshi added a two-run
double.
Moore led the 17-hit PLU offense with his four hits, five RBI
and three runs scored, Shively was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and
three driven in, and Iwakami had a pair of hits and three RBI.
Takayoshi, Aratani and Brock Gates all added a pair of hits for the
Lutes.
Scott, Whitworth's third baseman, had three hits today and
finished the series with nine hits in 14 at bats, including two
homers, a triple and two doubles, with eight runs batted in
and five runs scored. Belet, Durant and Marlowe Peter all had a
pair of hits for the Pirates.
Ryan Frost, the last of three PLU pitchers, threw the final
four innings and was credited with the victory. He gave up no
runs on only two hits while striking out four.
Ben George, the first of five Whitworth pitchers, was knocked
from the mound after 2 2/3 innings in which he gave up eight earned
runs on seven hits.
Pacific Lutheran, ranked No. 17 in the American Baseball Coaches
Association/Collegiate Baseball Division III Top 25 Poll, returns
to action at noon on Tuesday when it host Concordia-Portland in a
non-conference doubleheader.
- PLU -
