SPOKANE, Wash. — No. 1 seed Whitworth scored four times in the first inning and then held on as rallying Pacific came up just short during the opener of the Northwest Conference Championship baseball tournament at Merkel Field, 5-3.
The loss for the Boxers sends them into the consolation bracket, where they will play at 10 a.m. on Saturday against the loser of Friday's game between Pacific Lutheran and George Fox. To win the title, Pacific now has to do it the hard way, winning four straight games on Saturday and Sunday.
No. 14/13 nationally ranked Whitworth is now 26-8 on the season, while the Boxers fall to 23-15.
The Pirates made the home Merkel Field crowd happy almost immediately with a four-run first inning. Whitworth battered Boxer starter
Paul Wolfram for six hits and the four plate crossings before the bleeding slowed. A Pacific error and a two-run double by Joel Condreay were two of the contributors to the perfect start for the hosts.
Whitworth added another run in the second inning and still led 5-0 before Pacific got on the board in the fourth.
Three of Pacific's big boppers all season long strung together three consecutive hits against Whitworth starter Hugh Smith to score a run.
Walker Olis,
Kurtis Kloke and
Dylan Wright all slashed singles, making the count 5-1.
The Boxers added another pair of scores in the sixth, when Olis doubled and Wright then stroked a two-run homer, his third of the season, to make it 5-3.
Meanwhile, Wolfram had settled in after the rough start and put nothing but zeros on the scoreboard. From the third inning into the eighth, he tossed 5.2 innings and gave up only four hits and no runs, keeping the Boxers in the game.
And the visitors did put the pressure on in each of the last three innings. In the seventh, catcher
Kane Ulrich singled and stole a base, but was stranded. In the eighth,
Ben Roquet doubled but was left at second base. In the ninth, pinch hitter
Justin Strayer singled and Ulrich came through with another base knock, but Pirate closer J.D. Page got the final out of the game on a line out to third base.
The Boxers had nine hits in the game, but stranded seven base runners. Smith (5-0) got the win, scattering eight hits in 8.2 innings, striking out six. Wolfram took the loss to fall to 6-5 on the season.
Wright had a stellar game, driving in all three of Pacific's runs with a single and home run. Olis and Ulrich also had two hits.
The Pirates had 11 hits, with two each stroked by Condreay, Jeremy Druffel, Matthew Nelson and Garrett Hughes.
