TACOMA, Wash. - Ryan Kingma picked up his fifth win of the season with seven innings of one-run baseball and Nate Lamberty went 4-for-4 as visiting Whitworth completed a series sweep of Puget Sound with a 5-2 win on Sunday in western Washington.
The No. 14 Pirates (17-4, 9-3 NWC) built their win streak to five games and lead the conference standings by a game over second-place George Fox. Whitworth had topped the Loggers (9-14, 6-9) twice on Saturday with final scores of 4-2 and 6-3. In Sunday's finale, Puget Sound was hurt by four defensive miscues resulting in three unearned runs scored by Whitworth.
Kingma won his third consecutive start and pitched at least seven innings for the third time this season, keeping Puget Sound off the scoreboard after the second inning in a close contest. Whitworth grabbed a 2-1 lead early before adding one run apiece in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings.
Lamberty collected the first of his four hits in the second inning to help spark a two-run inning for the Pirates. His one-out single was followed by a walk to Casey Isa, and both runners moved up a base on a passed ball. Garrett Hughes scored Lamberty with a sacrifice fly before Daniel Casanova's two-out single scored Isa for a 2-0 lead.
Puget Sound cut the deficit in half during bottom of the second when Ben Jones scored Nathan Backes with a two-out double after Backes had led off the inning with a double himself.
Lamberty's third hit of game led to a 3-1 lead during the sixth. He singled with out out before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt. Hughes then singled to score Lamberty and record the Pirates' second two-out RBI hit of the game.
Whitworth added an unearned run in the seventh inning for a 4-1 lead as Matthew Nelson scored via a fielding error by the Puget Sound shortstop on a ball hit by Ryan Bird. Nelson had put himself in scoring position with a one-out double and was able to score from second base on the play.
The Pirates took advantage of two Logger miscues to plate a run in the ninth. A fielding error allowed Casanova to reach safely before he stole second base. Casanova later scored on Nelson's fly-out to right field via a second error in the inning. On the out, a throwing error by the Puget Sound right fielder allowed Casanova to score as he was tagging up and advancing from second base.
Backes led off the bottom of the ninth with a double against reliever Arory Milyard and later scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by James Dejesus. But Milyard then got Jones to ground out and end the game, picking up his third save of the season.
Lamberty finished the day with four singles, scoring two runs and accounting for nearly half of the Pirates' nine hits in the game. Jeremy Druffel went 2-for-5 while Hughes was 1-for-3 with two RBIs.
Kingma, who won his fifth game in six starts this season, struck out three and did not allow a walk over seven innings pitched. He allowed eight hits and one earned run. Milyard pitched the final two innings, allowing just one hit and one earned run.
Merle Rowan-Kennedy (1-2) started for the Loggers and took the loss, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits over 5 ⅔ innings pitched. Puget Sound was hurt by its four errors as only two of the Pirates' five runs in the game were earned runs.
Backes went 4-for-4 with two runs scored for the Loggers.
Whitworth has a quick turnaround, traveling to Whitman for a pair of non-conference games on Tuesday. The first game will begin at 3 p.m. The Pirates then return to Merkel Field to face Lewis & Clark on Friday and Saturday.
