SPOKANE, WASH – Whitworth dominated visiting Linfield 16-5 complete a Northwest Conference baseball series sweep on Senior Day Sunday at Paul Merkel Field.
Whitworth now sits at third place in the conference standings at 24-11 overall and 12-9 in NWC play. Linfield fell to 18-20 on the season and 11-12 in conference play.
Elijah Tanner picked things up where he left off on Saturday with an RBI single to give the Pirates an early lead. Henry Zaske followed by drawing a bases loaded walk to increase the lead to 2-0 after the first inning.
The Bucs' had a four-run second inning that started off with Aidan Morrison's RBI double down the left field line and Tanner's second RBI single of the game. The final two runs of the inning came from sacrifice fly outs by Ty Quiggle and Zaske.
Linfield's Nick Holm doubled down the right field line to record their first run of the game in the third inning.
In the bottom of the fourth with two outs and the bases loaded Whitworth's Jacob Doughty sent a ball high over the wall in right field for his fourth home run of the season and increased the Bucs' lead to 10-1.
Holm struck again for the Wildcat's in the fifth inning with an RBI single to right field. In the next at bat Tyler Marr singled to bring across Linfield's third run of the game.
Austin Paul's continued his impressive offense on the weekend with a three-RBI double to left center field in the sixth inning. This marked Paul's eighth hit of the weekend and ninth RBI. After Shipman hit a double down the left field line, the Pirates lead 16-3 after six innings.
Linfield was able to pick up two more runs in the top of the ninth.
Quentin O'Conner (7-3) started for the Pirates and pitched six innings, allowing three runs on nine hits, all while striking out six batters. First out of the bullpen was Dylan Huntsman with 1.2 innings of one hit relief. The Bucs also used Joey Del Carlo (0.1IP, 0H, 0R), Dylan Owen (0.2IP, 2H, 1ER), and Aidan Smith (0.1IP, 0H, 0R) out of the bullpen.
Linfield's Jacob Swenson (3-2) pitched the first 3.2 innings and allowed eight earned runs on six hits. Logan Travis was brough in as relief for 0.2 innings of work while allowing two earned runs on two hits. Steve Kovac followed with 0.2 innings of work while allowing one earned run on two hits. The Wildcats used Brian Mannon (1IP, 2ER, 2H) and John Over (1IP, 2H, 2R), and Jarrett Allen (1IP, 0H, 0R) to complete the game.
Whitworth will travel to Newberg, Oregon next weekend to take on George Fox University in their final Northwest Conference series of the season. Whitworth will look to secure a spot in the NWC tournament with one win in next weekend's three game series.
