PHOENIX – Going into Sunday morning, all three of Pacific Lutheran's wins on the baseball diamond had come by one run. The Lutes kept that run going to close out the Arizona Desert Classic, knocking off La Verne 5-4 to improve to 4-2 in the first week of the season.

Collin Nilson pitched 5.2 innings to earn the win for the Lutes, while Jake Otness bridged the gap to closer AJ Konopaski with two innings of work. Konopaski came in with two outs and a runner on third in the eighth inning and forced an infield popup to end the inning before working out of a jam in the ninth with a double play groundball to short. The Lutes' closer earned his fourth save of the year, as he has closed out all four of PLU's wins so far.

La Verne took an early 2-0 lead before Bo Pearson crushed a grand slam in the second inning to put PLU on top 4-2. Kit Banko continued his strong start to the season for the Lutes, tallying three hits and driving in PLU's fifth run of the game. Kory Vanderstaay also had a big game, knocking a double among two hits on the day and making a tremendous diving catch on the right field line at the warning track to open the eighth inning.

The Lutes have a break next week before returning to action Feb. 22 down in Portland at the Cascade Conference – Northwest Conference Challenge.