PARKLAND - Scott Wall improved his season record to 5-0 on Sunday afternoon, pitching Pacific Lutheran to a 5-1 Northwest Conference baseball victory over the visiting Whitman Missionaries at the PLU field.

By taking two wins in the three-game series, Pacific Lutheran improved to 11-11 overall this season, including a 7-5 record in the Northwest Conference. Whitman is now 4-22 overall and 3-12 in the conference.

Wall allowed one earned run on six hits while walking two and striking out eight in 7 1/3 innings of work. He came out of the game after allowing a single and a walk, and relief pitcher Ryan Frost shut down the Missionaries the rest of the way. Frost, a first team all-conference reliever in 2010, earned his third save this season by striking out two in retiring all five batters he faced.

The Lutes staked Wall to an early lead, scoring three runs on four hits in the bottom of the third inning. Jacob Hoffman led off with a single and one out later advanced to third on Corey Moore's double. Brock Gates hit a sacrifice fly to score Hoffman, and Ryan Aratani and Frost followed with consecutive doubles to drive in the next two runs.

PLU added single runs in the fourth and fifth frames. In the fourth, Bo Pearson led off with a double, moved up a base on Dan Johansen's bunt single, and then scored on a wild pitch. An inning later, Frost walked and came around on two wild pitches sandwiched around a Whitman error.

The Missionaries scored their only run in the top of the fifth inning when Kyle buckman hit a double and then scored on a single through the middle by Chris Andrews.

Whitman, which finished with six hits, ended up leaving nine runners on base, while the Lutes left eight stranded. PLU had nine hits, including a pair each by Aratani and Pearson.

Pacific Lutheran returns to action at 3 p.m. Wednesday with a non-conference game at Saint Martin's. The next conference series for the Lutes comes next Saturday and Sunday when they travel to Spokane to face the Whitworth Pirates.

- PLU -