McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Pacific Lutheran wrapped up its season-opening baseball weekend down in Oregon Sunday evening as the Lutes fell 5-0 to Linfield at Roy Helser Field.

A nonconference matchup of two nationally-ranked Northwest Conference opponents saw the 17th-ranked Lutes and 14th-ranked Wildcats engage in a pitching duel for five scoreless innings. Linfield broke through to score five runs in the final three innings to defeat the Lutes.

"Linfield is a good ball club," PLU head coach Nolan Soete said. "They played well today. Their pithing staff did an excellent job mixing pitches and hitting spots."

Cole Johnson started for the Lutes and pitched 5.1 innings, holding the Wildcats without a run until the bottom of the sixth inning. He finished with two runs allowed, while Leif Hansen and Ty Donahou picked up the final eight outs in relief.

"Some positive takeaways from today were our defense and starting pitching," Soete said. "Cole threw really well, and we did not commit an error for the second game in a row."

Pacific Lutheran finished the night with four hits, with Ben Welch leading the Lute offense by reaching base once via hit and another time via walk. Frank Airey, Tyler Thompson and Drew Oord each tallied hits for the Lutes.

PLU has a quick turnaround for another nonconference trip, as the Lutes travel to Arizona next weekend for four games, with two matchups scheduled against La Verne and two more against Redlands.

"We need to improve offensively, and we need to find a way to play well in all three phases of offense, defense and pitching at the same time," Soete said. "That will be our focus moving forward."