PARKLAND – The Pacific Lutheran pitching staff continued to shut down the high-scoring Whitman offense Sunday, limiting the Missionaries to a combined five runs to win both ends of the doubleheader and complete the three-game series sweep at PLU Field. PLU won Sunday's first game 5-3 before closing out the weekend with a 7-2 win.

Going against a team that had averaged nearly nine runs per contest in its first 14 games, Pacific Lutheran limited Whitman to a total of six runs in the three-game series. The Lutes improved to 10-4 overall and a perfect 5-0 in Northwest Conference play to sit atop the conference standings after the second week of play. Whitman fell to 9-8 overall and 1-5 in the NWC. PLU heads to Spokane next weekend for a three-game series against Whitworth, beginning March 15 at 12 p.m.

Despite Whitman coming into the weekend with a significant advantage in offensive numbers, the Lutes out-hit the Missionaries 33-19 for the series – including 22-12 on Sunday. Cory Nelson picked up his first win of the season in Sunday's opener, pitching 2.1 innings of perfect relief after taking over for Chris Bishop in the sixth inning of a 3-3 game. AJ Konopaski pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his seventh save of the season. Trevor Lubking threw 121 pitches while limiting Whitman to one earned run on four hits in eight innings in the second game before Jake Otness closed it out for the Lutes.

Dominick Courcy continued his hot streak in the first game, picking up a team-best three hits and driving in one run for the Lutes. Tyler Thompson and Alec Beal also tallied two hits, with Thompson and Garrett Brown each driving in two runs.

The Lutes took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Collin Nilson and Drew Oord opened the inning with consecutive singles, and a one-out walk to Clay Trushinsky loaded the bases when Brown singled to right to bring in the first two runs of the game. One out later, Courcy singled to right center to drive in PLU's third run.

Whitman nearly tied it up in the following frame, using a Maclean Harned single and doubles by Jimmy Madden and Aaron Cohen to score two runs. A wild pitch advanced Cohen to third, but Bishop induced a fly out to right to end the threat and strand the tying runner 90 feet from home plate.

Three straight singles in the top of the fifth finally allowed the Missionaries to tie it up at 3-3, as Madden and Ozzy Braff each singled to put runners on the corners and Cohen again came through with a clutch hit for his third RBI of the game.

The Lutes scored the deciding runs in the bottom of the sixth. Beal led off with a single, and Ben Welch reached on a base hit through the left side. Courcy sent a base hit to right to load the bases, and Thompson brought Welch and Beal home with a clutch two-out single up the middle.

Madden led the Missionaries with three hits and two runs scored, while Cohen drove in all three of Whitman's runs in the game and finished with a pair of hits. The second game featured even less offense for Whitman, as Paul Heywood was the only Missionary to tally two hits against PLU starter Lubking.

Lubking improved to 3-0 and remained in the game despite a brief 10-minute rain in the middle of the seventh inning. Thompson, Curtis Wildung and Oord all came up with two hits in the second game for PLU, and Oord and Bo Pearson each drove in a pair of runs.

Whitman got on the board first, as the Missionaries took advantage of a few PLU miscues to score a run in the top of the fourth. Kyle Moyes reached on a one out single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error by the Lutes to take Whitman's first (and only) lead of the series.

PLU made sure the Missionaries' lead didn't last long, as the Lutes busted out for five runs on five hits in the bottom of the inning – all of which coming with two outs. Thompson and Nilson singled to put runners on first and second, and Wildung sent a base hit to right center to tie it up and send Nilson to third as the go-ahead run. Oord came through with an RBI single through the right side, and after Maika'i Derouin was hit by a pitch to load the bases Pearson brought two more home on a single to left. PLU's final run of the frame scored on that same play, as the ball got by the Whitman left fielder to allow Derouin to come in all the way from first and send Pearson to second.

Whitman scored its final run in the top of the second on a Harned sacrifice fly following singles by Cameron Young and Heywood, but PLU added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. Beal opened the frame with a walk, and Thompson singled to set the stage for a sacrifice bunt that put runners on second and third. A wild pitch made it 6-2 PLU, and Oord's final hit of the day brought home the Lutes' seventh run.