Boxers Win On Senior Day Behind Arakaki's Hitting Show
Box Score |
Video Highlights
FOREST GROVE –
Michael Arakaki (Sr., Hawaii Kai, Hawaii) made the most of his senior day Sunday, putting on a hitting clinic to lead Pacific to a 5-1 victory over Pacific Lutheran in the Boxers' 2013 baseball home finale at Chuck Bafaro Stadium.
Arakaki finished the day going 4 for 5 with two triples, two RBIs and a run scored to pace a 13-hit afternoon for the Boxers. He finished the series hitting .615, going 8 for 13 with a double, two triples, two RBIs and three runs.
The offensive effort made a winner of
Matt Delegato (Sr., Hillsboro, Ore.), who won his eighth in a row with his fifth complete game effort. The senior allowed one run on eight hits, walked two and struck out four to improve to 8-1 on the season.
Logan Moen (Sr., Brier, Wash.) continued the senior day theme by hitting 3 for 4 with a RBI and a run scored. In all, eight of the Boxers' nine batters finished with at least one hit.
With the win, Pacific secured themselves a tie for fourth place in the NWC standings with the Lutes at 12-12. The Boxers improved to 16-22 overall while the Lutes dropped to 22-15.
The Lutes appeared to have gotten to Delegato in the second, using a single by Carson McCord, a catcher's interference call and a walk to load the bases with two outs. Delegato managed to coax Clay Trushinsky into a flyout on the first pitch to quickly end the threat.
Arakaki put Pacific on the board in the third when he tripled to left center field with one out and scored on
Nick Tasaka's (Sr., Hawaii Kai, Hawaii) sacrifice fly. Moen made it a 2-0 game in the fourth when he reached on a double, advanced to third on a botched squeeze bunt attempt and scored on
Donnie Bradley's (So., Beaverton, Ore.) single to center field. Pacific threatened to do more in the frame, loading the bases against PLU starter Trevor Lubking before he coxed
Ben Duerr (Fr., Lebanon, Ore.) into an inning-ending double play.
The Boxers played add-on in the fifth and sixth. Tasaka was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth and scored on a two-out single to right by Moen.
Dan Jaffe (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.) led off the sixth with a single and would later score on Arakaki's single to left.
PLU finally managed to erase Delegato's shutout in the eighth. Curtis Wildung walked, advanced to second on a single by McCord and scored on a double to right by Collin Nilson. Two batters later it appeared that Cory Nelson had found the gap in center field, but Duerr came up with a diving catch that left two runners in scoring position. The Boxers would take the run back in the bottom of the eighth when Duerr singled with two outs and scored on Arakaki's second triple of the day.
Lubking dropped to 8-3 on the season with the loss, allowing four runs on 10 hits with one walk and five strikeouts in six innings of work. Carson led the Lutes offensively by going 2 for 4.
Pacific will finish the 2013 season next Saturday with single non-conference games against Whitman and Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. PLU will wrap up their season next season with non-conference games against Linfield, Whitworth and Lewis-Clark State next weekend in Lewiston, Idaho.
