SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth baseball gears up for an unusual week as they host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for a three-game series before hosting Pacific Lutheran on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in a one-game weather makeup.

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The Pirates: Whitworth (15-6, 6-5 NWC) is coming off a road weekend against Puget Sound where they dropped two games on Friday before salvaging a 15-3 win on Saturday to avoid the Easter-weekend sweep.

Game one of the series was a pitcher's duel with Loggers' starter Davis Franklin throwing six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits while striking out eight. On the other side, Hunter Dryden pitched six innings and allowed just a run on seven scattered hits. Jacob Doughty put the ball in play to score the tying run in the seventh, but Brock Makashima knocked a walk off single to center field to score Makana Murashige for the 2-1 win. UPS handled Whitworth in game two 6-2, Franklin accounted for two RBIs in the first two innings on a single and a bases-loaded walk to help the Loggers to a 3-0 lead. Whitworth pushed across two runs in the fourth off Ty Quiggle's sacrifice fly and an error on Doughty's single to right allowed Spencer Shipman to score from first. Puget Sound answered calmly however, tacking on a run in the fourth and two in the sixth to hold off the Pirates. In the series finale, Whitworth avoided being swept for the first time this season with a resounding 15-3 win on 14 hits. The game was action-packed early, Whitworth took advantage of base traffic and early contact to take a 6-2 lead going into the fourth. The Pirates opened things up with a five-run fifth, four of those RBIs were on infield hits, errors, or a fielder's choice. The Loggers posted 13 hits of their own but managed just three runs on Hirano's second-inning double to score two, and a seventh-inning single from Ujimori. Quentin O'Connor got the win allowing three runs in 6.2 innings on nine hits, the Loggers used a smattering of seven pitchers to get through the series finale.

Series Top Performers: Aidan Morrison had another solid weekend, batting 6-12 with a pair of walks, two RBIs, and two runs scored. Ty Quiggle also delivered some clutch at bats, he hit 4-10 and drove in four RBIs while scoring twice himself. On the mound, Dryden (4-1) pitched six innings and allowed just one run while striking out five.

Despite dropping two last weekend, Whitworth remains in fourth place in the NWC standings, two games behind Willamette (17-5, 10-5 NWC) and 1.5 ahead of defending-champion Pacific (15-7, 4-4 NWC). As a team, Whitworth is batting .280 (fourth in NWC), they've scored 168 runs (fourth), posted a .420 slugging percentage (fourth), and they rank middle of the pack in nearly every other offensive statistic. On the mound, the Pirates ERA is second in the NWC at 3.69, they're allowing a .255 average against and given up a league low of 79 runs defensively.

The Opponents: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (17-7, 6-6 SCIAC) comes into the weekend having won five of its last 10, traveling to Spokane for the first time in baseball's program history. CMS is led by its high-flying offense which is batting .330 and scores an average of 8.7 runs per game on eleven hits a game. In conference play those numbers fall to 5.9 and 9.25 per game. The Stags have blasted 27 home runs this season. That offense is led by Andrew Mazzone who's putting up some unbelievable numbers; Mazzone leads the team with a .460 batting average on 40 hits, 36 RBIs, 11 home runs, eight doubles, and a .954 slugging percentage. On the mound, CMS leans on Parker McGraw, a first-year pitcher with a 3.65 ERA, 27 strikeouts and seven walks through 32 innings of work. The Stags are coached by Bill Walkenbach who's in his eighth season leading the Stags. This weekend will mark the first-ever meeting between Whitworth and CMS baseball.

Pacific Lutheran (9-16, 4-7 NWC) has been up and down this season, starting 1-8 before bouncing back to 6-9, and now they've lost four of five. The Lutes will take on L&C this weekend in a three-game series before closing their week in Spokane for one Tuesday afternoon game against the Pirates. PLU is led by Aaron Barber who leads the roster in batting average (.358), hits (34) and doubles (7). Rochne Beecham leads the Lutes with 19 RBIs but hits just .281. On the mound, PLU's ace has been Chris Moreno (1-3) who's thrown 33 innings and has a 4.36 ERA and a .308 average against. Whitworth took two from PLU on March 3, winning 14-1 and 7-4 before weather delayed the other two games.

More Morrison please: Aidan Morrison added to an impressive 2024 season with his performance last weekend. Morrison remains in the NWC's top ten in batting average (.365 - tenth), runs (26- fifth), hits (31- seventh), RBIs (21- eighth), and home runs (5- eighth).

O'Connor finding a groove: Transfer Quentin O'Connor has been a huge aid and factor in the Pirates' pitching improvement this season. O'Connor's pitched 32 innings, has a 4-1 record in six appearances, he's tied for second with 28 strikeouts and a .250 batting average allowed.

Getting a head start: In both losses this weekend, the Pirates failed to push across early runs. Game three they exploded for six and it led to a 15-3 win. Whitworth has outscored opponents 54-22 in the first three innings of games this season, and they're 13-1 when they're leading or tied after three innings of play. They are 2-5 when they trail a game after three innings.

The Coach: CJ Perry is in his sixth season as the Pirates head baseball coach, he began his tenure in 2018 and was named NWC coach of the year in 2019 after leading the Pirates to a 19-5 conference record and a regular season title. Perry is a Spokane native, and graduated from Whitworth University in 2012. He entered 2024 with a 68-68 record.

Looking ahead: Whitworth hosts Whitman in 'the battle of the Whits' on April 13-14 in a four-game conference clash.