SPOKANE, Wash. - Max Beatty pitch seven strong shutout innings to lift visiting Pacific Lutheran to an 8-0 win over Whitworth in Sunday's finale of a three-game Northwest Conference baseball series at Merkel Field.

The Pirates fell to 14-16 overall and 8-7 in the NWC and saw their four-game win streak came to an end. The Lutes improved to 13-13, 8-7 while avoiding a sweep.

Beatty allowed only three hits and three walks while striking out 10 Whitworth batters over seven innings to improve his record to 3-3 this season. Nic Delikat and Kipp Godfrey both threw a scoreless inning in relief.

Jacob Hoffman was the offensive key for PLU as the Lutes scored in six of the game's first seven innings. He went 4-for-6 with three runs batted in and a run scored. He slammed his second home run of the season leading off the seventh inning.

Ryan Aratani became PLU's all-time leader in RBIs when he drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the first inning. He now has 118, surpassing the previous record of 117 set by Jordan Post. Bo Pearson added a two-run single for PLU, while Corey Moore and Dominick Courcy both had three hits.

Gerhard Muelheims had a pair of hits for Whitworth, half of the Pirates' total in the game. Kramer Kembel, who took the loss, started on the mound for the Bucs and didn't survive the first inning after walking two batters and hitting another to load the bases.

(Courtesy of Whitworth Sports Information Office.)