ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Central Washington pulled away over the final four innings for a 7-2 win over visiting Whitworth in a non-conference baseball game on Tuesday afternoon at the CWU baseball field.

The NCAA Div. II Wildcats improved to 8-9 while the DIII Pirates dropped to 5-6-1.

Josh Davis went 3-4 and drove in both of Whitworth's runs.  He had RBI singles in the first and sixth innings, the second of which pulled the Pirates to within 4-2.

But CWU scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Ethan Sterkel and an RBI single by Kyle Sani.  The Wildcats added a final run in the eighth when Kasey Bielec doubled home Sani.

Jeremy Druffel, Gerhard Muelheims, Tyler Pfeffer and Danny Jordan all had two hits each for Whitworth, but the Pirates stranded six base runners in the game.  Muelheims scored both of Whitworth's runs.

Sani finished 3-5 with three RBI's for Central, including a solo home run.  Marc Garza also drilled a solo homer.

Spencer Ansett went four innings on the mound for the Pirates, allowing four runs on eight hits.  He dropped to 0-2 this season.  Taylor Isadore gave up two runs on four hits in 2.0 innings, while Michael Renner allowed one run on three hits in 1.1 innings of work.  Jason Renner finished up with the final 0.2 innings.

The Wildcats staffed the game with six different pitchers and Davis Engel (1-1) was credited with the win after giving up one run on five hits over the first three innings.

Whitworth will begin defense of its Northwest Conference crown when the Pirates entertain Puget Sound this coming weekend.