TACOMA - Scott Wall threw his first complete game of the season
as Pacific Lutheran earned an 11-4 Northwest Conference baseball
victory, and with it a series win, over host Puget Sound on Sunday
afternoon at Logger Field.
The win was the 200th for Lutes head coach Geoff Loomis,
now in his eighth year at PLU.
The Lutes (27-7 overall, 15-3) hold a one-game lead over
second-place Linfield (14-4) in the conference standings, while
Puget Sound (14-18, 8-10) is currently in fifth place.
Wall was the second part of bookend complete game
efforts by the PLU pitching staff in the series. Trey Watt threw a
five-hit shutout in the Lutes' 6-0 opening win. After the Loggers
put the finishing touches on Saturday's rain-suspended game with a
12-5 win on Sunday, Wall improved his season record to 5-1,
allowing seven hits while striking out six and walking three.
The Loggers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but by
the time they scored again the Lutes already held a 9-1 lead.
PLU scored three times in the second on Ethan Ottemiller's
two-run single and an infield single by Sammy Davis. The visitors
added a run in the third when Dan Johansen led off with a single
and eventually came around on a balk, and then they broke it open
with four in the fourth. Ben Shively led off with a single and went
to third on Ryan Frost's double. Davis drove in Shively with a
ground out, and Frost scored on Josh Takayoshi's fourth home of the
season. Johansen, Ryan Aratani and Brock Gates then hit consecutive
singles to account for the other run. The Lutes added one more in
the fifth when Shively hit a leadoff double and later came in on a
Davis ground ball.
Puget Sound made it 9-2 with a run in the fifth before the Lutes
added their final two runs in the seventh on Shively's two-run
homer, his third of the season. The Loggers scored a pair of runs
in the bottom of the ninth to close out the scoring.
PLU collected 17 hits in the game, including three each by
Johansen, Aratani and Shively and two apiece by Frost and Gates.
Puget Sound had the early offense in winning the second game of
the series. It scored three runs in the first and eight more in the
bottom of the third before the game was suspended by heavy rainfall
on Saturday. The Lutes finished the game with a total of eight
hits, two each by Jaron Iwakami and Josh Takayoshi. Robert Bleecker, the PLU starter, took the loss and saw his record fall to
6-2. Frost, PLU's third pitcher, threw the final 5 1/3 innings,
allowing one run on two hits while striking out two and walking
three.
- PLU -
