PARKLAND - With the support of a pair of three-run home runs, Dan Johansen battled to a complete-game victory in the second game as Pacific Lutheran split a Northwest Conference baseball doubleheader with Pacific on a sunny Saturday at the PLU field.
The visiting Boxers (12-6 overall, 8-3 conference) won the opener, 8-1, before the Lutes (6-9 overall, 2-3 conference) came back to win the second contest, 7-5.
Johansen, a second team all-conference outfielder last season, threw his first complete game in just his second start of the season. He allowed four earned runs on 10 hits while walking just one and striking out five. He was backed by PLU's 10-hit attack, which included three-run homers off the bat of Brock Gates in the first inning and Jacob Hoffman in the seventh inning.
Game One: Pacific 8, PLU 1
Pacific scored a run in the first on Chad Fahey's run-scoring single, but the Lutes tied it an inning later when Gates, who led off with a single, eventually scored on Hoffman's sacrifice fly.
The Boxers added a run in the fifth inning when Michael Arakaki hit a double, moved up a base on Travis Koon's infield single, and then scored on a ground out by Kevin Schwartz. PLU had a chance to tie it in the sixth inning, loading the bases with one out, but what would have been Ryan Aratani's deep sacrifice fly was instead turned into an inning-ending double play by a base-running blunder.
That opened the door to a pair of three-run innings by the Boxers in the eighth and ninth. In the eighth, Jared Van Hoon led off with a single and later stole home when Mike Nagamine, who had singled, got in a rundown. Nagamine reached second on an error during the rundown, and he scored on Fahey's double. Pinch runner Sam Kaplan later scored on a Lutes throwing error.
Kaplan accounted for Pacific's runs in the ninth, blasting a three-run homer over the fence in left field.
Pacific recorded 12 hits in support of winning pitcher Rob Dittrick, who threw a seven-hitter to improve his record to 5-1. Dittrick walked two and struck out three in notching his third complete game of the season. Koon had three hits to lead the Pacific offense, which also got a pair of two-hit performances from Van Hoon, Nagamine and Fahey.
Gates had three of PLU's seven hits.
Game Two: PLU 7, Pacific 5
Johansen came up big when the Lutes needed him, and so too did Gates and Hoffman.
After Pacific scored a run in the top of the first, Jaron Iwakami and Corey Moore drew walks before Gates staked the hosts to a 3-1 lead with a homer to left field.
The Boxers got a run back in the third when Nagamine hit a two-out RBI single after Schwartz had led off the frame with a double.
The teams traded runs in the sixth, Pacific scoring an unearned run on Nick Tasaka's pinch hit sacrifice fly, and the Lutes getting theirs on a sacrifice fly by Nicholas Hall. Hoffman was hit by a pitch and Ryan Frost hit a single before both runners were moved up a base by Zack Halverson's sacrifice bunt, leading to Hall's run-producing fly ball.
Pacific again tied the game, this time at 4-4, with a run in the seventh inning. Schwartz hit a one-out single, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Van Hoon's ground out.
That led to Hoffman's game-deciding three-run blast in the seventh inning, but the three runs were unearned after a two-out error on Ryan Aratani's ground ball. Hoffman stepped into the box and promptly drilled the ball over the left field fence.
Pacific got a run back in the eighth when Nagamine hit a double and eventually scored on Trux French's ground out, and it had the tying run on second base in the top of the ninth when Johansen coaxed Anson Arakaki to swing at a ball in the dirt for the third and final out.
Schwartz had four hits and Nagamine added three to lead Pacific, while Moore, Hoffman and Frost all had a pair of hits for the Lutes.
The teams conclude their three-game series at noon on Sunday with a nine-inning game.
- PLU -
