SPOKANE, Wash. — A valiant comeback effort came up just one run short on Saturday night as Whitworth held off Pacific 6-5 in a loser's out game at the Northwest Conference Baseball Championships at Paul Merkel Field.

The Boxers, who had won earlier in the day 17-9 against George Fox, fell for the second time in the tournament to the host and No. 1 seed. The Pirates edged the Boxers on Friday (5-3), but then were upset on Saturday afternoon by Pacific Lutheran. No. 14/13 nationally ranked Whitworth must now beat the Lutes twice on Sunday to win the crown and the automatic NCAA tournament berth that goes with it.

With the win, the Pirates improved to 27-9 on the season while Pacific dropped to 24-16.

Whitworth appeared to bounce back quickly from the loss to the Lutes, jumping out to a 6-0 lead over the Boxers through four innings of play. That is where the score stood heading into the top of the sixth inning, with Pirate pitcher T.J. Orchard throwing complete blanks at the Boxers. He was cruising with a no-hitter and nine strikeouts against the league's best hitting team.

Then things changed dramatically.

Kane Ulrich finally got the first hit of the night off of Orchard, and Eli Wisdom quickly added another. Ben Roquet followed with a three-run blast over the left field fence, and all of a sudden the Boxers were within three runs at 6-3.

In the eighth, the freshman Wisdom again scratched a hit off of Orchard, chasing the starter from the game. Roquet greeted reliever Arory Milyard with a double, and then Walker Olis drove both Boxers home with a single up the middle to make the count 6-5. One batter later, Milyard left the game and Whitworth's Kelly Fitzpatrick entered.

With Olis on first base and the hot-hitting Dylan Wright at bat, the unthinkable happened. For the first time all season, and for the first time in three years for that matter, Olis was thrown out trying to steal second base--by the combination of Fitzpatrick and catcher Nate Lamberty. Wright then ground out to end the inning.

Pacific had one more opportunity in the ninth when Charlie Dietrich walked, but Fitzpatrick struck out two batters induced a ground ball for the third out to end the game.

Roquet was Pacific's leader at the plate with the double, home run and three RBI. Wisdom had two hits and scored twice. Nathan Suyematsu was a workhorse out of the bullpen, pitching 5.2 innings and only giving up four hits and two runs--and complete zeros after the fourth inning. He also fanned five Pirate batters.

The Boxers will wrap up their season with a non-conference three-game set at Willamette on April 30 and May 1.