ANTHEM, Ariz. - Trevor Lubking picked up the pitching victory and both Alec Beal and Dominick Courcy had three hits on Saturday as Pacific Lutheran beat Redland, 7-4, in an Arizona Desert Classic baseball game played at Boulder Creek High School.

The win was PLU's second in three Arizona Desert Classic games and also improved the team's season record to  3-2. Redlands is now 1-2 in the Classic and for the season.

A trio of PLU sophomores combined their pitching talents to keep the Bulldogs at bay. Lubking allowed three runs in six innings of work to pick up his first victory against no defeats. He gave up seven hits and a walk and struck out six Redlands batters. AJ Konopaski had 2 1/3 innings of solid relief work, allowing two hits and an earned run with three strikeouts before giving way to PLU closer Chris Bishop in the top of the ninth. Bishop went the final two-thirds of an inning, including a strikeout, to pick up his second save of the season and his second in as many games.

Beal and Courcy were the hitting stars for the Lutes with their three hits apiece out of PLU's total of 13. Beal was 3-for-4 with one run scored and four batted in, and Courcy was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two steals. Both players are now hitting better than .500 through the team's first five games. Beal hit a two-run single in the bottom of the fifth to put the Lutes on top, 3-2, and he added a run-scoring double to make it 6-3 in the seventh inning.

Collin Nilson and Markus McClurkin had run-scoring base hits prior to Beal's hit, breaking a tie and giving PLU a 5-3 advantage. McClurkin finished with two hits, as did Tanner Bogart, while Jacob Olsufka scored two runs and stole a base.

The Lutes conclude their participation in the Arizona Desert Classic at 9 a.m. (PT) Sunday with a game against the Whittier College Poets.

- PLU -