For the fourth time in five years, the Pacific baseball team is Northwest Conference regular season champions.
The Boxers clinched the 2025 title by sweeping George Fox over the weekend.
On the mound,
Nicholas Saelens continued his spectacular freshman season, holding the Bruins to three hits and one run over seven innings on Sunday to earn the game three win.
Pacific scored two runs in the first and added three more in the third on its way to a 5-1 victory.
"Every single time it's absolutely special," said Pacific fifth-year senior
Davis Koester, who has been a member of all four conference championship teams. "It's just an incredible team and an incredible team effort. We're definitely doing something special here."
Pacific first-year head coach
Jacob Upwood was quick to credit the Boxers returning players and coaching staff that have built the program.
"This isn't about me. This is about these guys and the coaches that have been here," Upwood said. "I'm along for the ride. I was very fortunate. That was one of the things when I got the job that I was looking forward to the most is this is a program that's had quite a bit of success recently and it was up to me to just continue that success."
After starting the season 0-9, including three losses at Willamette to open NWC play, Pacific won seven straight conference series.
With Sunday's win, the Boxers improved to 16-15 overall and 16-8 in the NWC.
"Rocky start, but at the same time we knew we were facing good ball clubs and good competition and we really hadn't found our sense of team identity quite yet," Koester said. "Once that came together and we put the pieces of the puzzle together, we really figured it out. And we've kept it going since."
As the No. 1 seed, Pacific will host the NWC baseball tournament on May 9-11.
SATURDAY
Game 1
After scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning, Pacific added two more in the sixth.
And that was all the run support starting pitcher
Governor Aufranc needed. The Pacific junior held George Fox to two runs over 7 ⅓ innings to lead the Boxers to a 4-2 win.
Senior
William Merriott recorded the final five outs to earn the save.
At the plate, sophomore
Rory Coughlan was 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI double. Freshman
Javin Hamura was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Game 2
The Boxers got another spectacular pitching performance in game two as
Chance Wallace was just one out from a complete game shutout.
The senior allowed five hits and one run to lead Pacific to an 8-1 victory.
After Koester scored on a sacrifice fly to right field in the bottom of the fourth, the Boxers added five more runs in the sixth inning to take a commanding 6-0 lead.
Lewis was 2-for-3 with a walk, stolen base, run and RBI in the win.
With two outs in the sixth,
Trevor Kazahaya singled to drive in two runs.
Hunter Nishina also had a two RBI single in the frame.
Nathaniel Chapman went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and a stolen base.
Vincent Lagatta also had two hits in the victory.
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