FOREST GROVE, Ore. — Pacific swept a baseball doubleheader from Whitman on Saturday at Chuck Bafaro Stadium, but will still have to wait another 24 hours before they know their exact post-season fate--although they do know they can make travel plans to Spokane for next weekend.
The Boxers won 9-2 and 2-1 in 11 innings to improve to 23-13 on the season and 14-9 in Northwest Conference play. Whitman falls to 12-25 in 2016 and to 7-16 in league action.
Four teams make up the NWC tournament field next weekend. Whitworth sits in first place at 16-7, Pacific Lutheran follows at 15-8, with the Boxers and George Fox tied for the three and four spots at 14-9. Linfield, who split with GFU today and plays the Bruins again on Sunday, is one game back of that final spot at 13-10. A three-way tie for the last two berths is still a possibility, but Pacific likely wins the tie-breaker to get in. Whether they fit into the third or fourth spot has yet to be determined.
The Boxers won the first game in easy fashion, using a record-breaking performance by
Walker Olis and solid pitching to roll to the 9-2 win.
Olis went 3-for-3, scored three times, walked twice, stole two bases, hit a home run and drove in two. But it was the season numbers the game contributed to that were stitched into Pacific's single-season record book.
The senior right fielder now has 50 runs scored in 2016, breaking the previous mark of 49 set by Matt Lengwenus in 2001. His 38 walks is a new school record, surpassing the 35 BB's accomplished by Billy Boyle (1996) and Ryan Lebreton (1997). Additionally, every stolen base in the books adds to his perfect record of 25-for-25.
The Boxers scored three times in the first inning and five more in the third to ice this one early. Olis had a two-run home run in the third, his ninth of the season.
Kurtis Kloke's RBI double was the key blow in the first inning.
Paul Wolfram pitched the first six innings to get the win. He improved to 6-4 on the season, allowing six hits, two runs, and four walks.
Nathan Suyematsu got the save by pitching three perfect innings of relief, striking out one.
Kloke joined Olis in having a big game one at the plate, dropping in three hits and driving in a run.
The second game was a completely different story. Starting pitchers
Sam Lawrence (Pacific) and John Lyon (Whitman) hooked up in a dazzling duel. Lyon completely shut down the Boxers for the first six innings, allowing only four hits. The tall left-hander walked four batters in the first two innings, but settled in after that to keep the Boxers off the scoreboard.
Lawrence retired five of the first six batters he faced, before Whitman put together a two-out rally in the second inning. A single by Cole Edwards and another base hit by Jaspar Crusberg brought home a run, and that 1-0 score would stand until the seventh.
In the seventh, Boxer head coach
Brian Billings went to his bench to get Pacific in the scorebook. Pinch hitter
Ryan Sohn singled to lead off the inning, and moved to second on pinch-hitter
Kane Ulrich's bunt.
Charlie Dietrich looped a single to move Sohn to third, and
Eli Wisdom's ground ball to the right side of the infield sent Sohn home with the tying run (1-1).
Meanwhile, after giving up a run in the second, Lawrence didn't give up another hit until the seventh inning. He worked out of a bases loaded jam in that inning, used a double play to his benefit in the eight and retired all three batters in the ninth before leaving the game.
Lyon's day was done in the eighth, but Pacific still couldn't find another run until the 11th. In that inning,
Dylan Wright was hit by a pitch to start the rally. Suyematsu had a pinch hit bunt single, and Sohn was intentionally walked to load the bases. After one Boxer strikeout, Pacific shortstop
Charlie Dietrich tapped an infield single to score Wright with the winning run.
Dietrich was the game two hitting star, proving the game winner and two other hits for a 3-for-4 line. But Lawrence and reliever
Spencer Backstrom also deserved game balls. Lawrence didn't get the decision, but put together a sterling effort in nine innings, allowing just seven hits and one run. He had one walk and struck out two.
Backstrom, the 6-foot-6 right-hander, went two innings, gave up three hits but no runs to pick up his second win of the year (2-0).
Pacific and Whitman will return to Chuck Bafaro Stadium on Sunday for a noon single game. Pacific's nine seniors will be honored before the game.