McMINNVILLE, Ore. — The Pacific baseball team finished up a stunning piece of weekend work, taking two games on the road from Linfield on Saturday at Roy Helser Field to complete a three-game sweep of the Wildcats in Northwest Conference play, 10-5 and 5-4 in 10 innings.
Coupled with Friday's 16-0 victory, Pacific improved to 14-9 on the season and to 10-5 in the NWC. The Boxers have now won seven games in a row. The No. 21 nationally ranked Wildcats are now 13-11 overall and 5-7 in league play.
After two lopsided victories, Pacific had to rely on a little heroics in the nightcap to get the win.
Pacific had built an early lead in Saturday's second game, rolling on
Walker Olis' solo home run in the fourth and his two-run double in the fifth. But after the Wildcats had tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Olis went back to work. He walked, stole second and then was driven home on
Dylan Wright's double to put the visitors back up at 5-4.
In the bottom of the tenth,
Eric Purcell, normally a starter, came out of the bullpen for only the second time this year to record a three-out save.
Olis went 2-for-4 in the game with three runs scored, three RBI, a walk and a stolen base. Wright came off the bench to deliver a pair of hits, including the game-winner.
Ben Duerr also had two hits in the victory.
In the opener, Olis and Wright were the hitting starts again, but with plenty of supporting cast as the red and black pounded out 18 hits. Olis had three of them, scored three times and stole two bases. Wright went 4-for-4 with three RBI, a double and three runs scored. On the day, Wright was 6-for-6.
Pacific built a 10-1 lead in this one before Linfield scored three runs in the seventh and one in the eighth. Four other Boxers had two hits each--Duerr,
Ben Roquet,
Joey Galeno and
Nathan Suyematsu. Duerr had a home run in the contest.
Sam Lawrence was effective on the mound, going 6.2 innings and allowing only four hits, one earned run, three walks and four strikeouts. He improved to 3-1 on the season.
Pacific will next take a break outside of conference play, traveling to southern California to take on Pomona-Pitzer in a three-game series, March 24-26.
