WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Whitworth's bounce back baseball season ended in the championship of the 2024 Northwest Conference tournament with an 8-4 loss to Willamette on Sunday at Whitman's Borleske Stadium.
Coming off of consecutive last place finishes in the NWC in 2022 and 2023, and picked to finish ninth in the 2024 preseason poll by conference coaches, the Pirates (28-14) reached the NWC tournament as the #3 seed and advanced to the championship by winning a pair of loser-out contests on Saturday. But the magic ended against the Bearcats (28-13). Willamette earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.
The Bearcats got on the board in the second on Clint Walker's RBI single.
Whitworth took its only lead in the top of the fifth on Kevin Corder's RBI double down the left field line that scored Dominic Giusti and Aaron Clogston.
Jeff Hoffman drilled a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to give Willamette the lead back. The Bearcats added a run in the sixth when the Pirates turned a 6-4-3 double play with runners on first and third and no outs.
Giusti and Clogston scored again in the seventh on Austin Paul's single. But Rocco Granucci answered in the bottom of the seventh for the eventual game-winning RBI.
Willamette added three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by Tassos Foster and a two-run single to left from Luke Piazza.
Whitworth was out of starting pitchers, so used almost the entire staff to get through the game. Hunter Williams, who pitched all three days of the tournament, opened and allowed one run on two hits in two innings. Eight Pirates followed on the mound, the longest stint coming from Tyler VanCise (1.1 IP, 2 runs). Dylan Huntsman (L, 0-1) suffered the loss after giving up Granucci's home run.
Steven Verespey started on the hill for the Bearcats and gave up two runs on five hits in 4.2 innings. Three pitchers followed in relief. Pruitt Spritzer (1.1 IP, 0 runs) got the win to improve to 4-0. Brady Joyner tossed the final inning to earn his seventh save.
Whitworth had been one strike away from dropping two straight in the tournament on Saturday before Elijah Tanner tied the loser-out game against Pacific with a dramatic home run in the bottom of the ninth. After the Bucs beat the Boxers in ten innings, Whitworth rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to defeat host Whitman 9-6 on Saturday night.
