The Whitworth baseball team continued its season last weekend against the Lewis & Clark Pioneers on Whitworth’s home turf and came away with a win and loss on Saturday and a loss on Sunday.

The first game on Saturday was a high-scoring game for both teams with the Bucs winning 15-12.

Prior to the game, the Pirates dedicated recently-renovated Merkel Field with a ceremony and President Beck Taylor threw the ceremonial first pitch.

When the game started, the Pirates came out scoring four runs in the first inning highlighted by two-run homer from sophomore catcher Josh Davis.  Lewis & Clark was held scoreless until the fourth inning.

Junior left fielder Tyler Pfeffer chalked up another two RBIs in the bottom of the second inning for the Bucs, to build a six-run lead. There were three more runs scored and that gave the Bucs a nine-run lead at the bottom of the second.

“Offensively we hit the ball better than we have all year on Saturday,” sophomore center fielder Erik Nikssarian said. “Our bats woke up and we were hitting the ball hard and they were finally dropping.”

The bats in game one were the best that they had been all year, head coach Dan Ramsay said.

Sophomore Dan Scheibe pitched six innings for the Bucs and had seven strikeouts, but the Pioneers were able to string some hits together and managed to score two runs in the top of the fourth and consistently put runs on the board in the next three innings.

After Whitworth added six more runs in the bottom of the fifth, Lewis & Clark came back with a home run in the top of the seventh inning and rounded in five runs. But the comeback wasn’t enough to defeat the Bucs in game one. Saturday was the Bucs first win after seven consecutive losses.

“We’ve been successful in the fact that we’re getting better at the things we work on from week to week. Hits and runs, bunts, etcetera have been executed extremely well,” Ramsay said.  “Now we just need to keep improving and moving forward game by game.”

Game two against the Pioneers on Saturday saw Lewis & Clark respond and earn a 12-4 win.

“In the second game we still outhit them, but we couldn’t scratch runs across,” Nikssarian said. “The difference between the first and second game was getting guys into scoring position and we left them on base.”

Both teams scored in the first inning and Pfeffer had a single bringing in an RBI for the Bucs.  For the first six innings the Bucs and Pioneers tousled back and forth each scoring runs consecutively leaving neither team with a solid lead.

In the top of the of the seventh though, the Pioneers had three RBIs and one unearned run putting them at a three point lead.

Pioneer starter John Trupin threw a complete game and was able to execute on the mound while not allowing the Pirates to get the runs they needed to win the game.

“We let a pitcher go all nine innings, and our inability to get to their bullpen and get runs across the board caused us to lose this game,” Nikssarian said.

It was a rainy Sunday as the Pirates took on the Pioneers once again and significantly less attendance from the fan section. Sophomore Nick Scoury started off pitching for the Bucs and threw for a full seven innings and junior Jason Renner pitched the last two to finish off the game.

“Nick Scourey and Jason Renner did a very good job of pitching today. They both have us a chance to win the game,” Ramsay said.

Sunday’s game was off to a slow start asboth teams were connecting with the ball but neither team could seem to get runners into scoring position.

In the bottom of the third inning Nikssarian singled out to left field and later scored the Pirates first run of the game. Pfeffer then cranked a double out to left field for an RBI and junior first baseman Gerhard Muelheims scored the second run of the game.

“Tyler Pfeffer and Gerhard Muelheims both played really well offensively and defensively today,” Ramsay said. “I was also impressed with Nathan Jewett, he played smart baseball and executed when we asked him to.”

The Bucs were in a two-run lead until the Pioneers came back in the top of the sixth inning with four runs. All four of these runs were unearned leaving the Bucs in a two-run deficit in the sixth.

Both teams scored all of their runs in one inning and the Bucs ended Sunday with a 4-2 loss to the Pioneers.

“Our biggest challenge right now is dealing with the adversity that comes from losing games you expect to win, but I’m convinced this adversity will turn out to be a positive thing down the road,” Ramsay said. “Our guys are tough enough to move forward in tough times as long as we stay together we’ll be that much better down the road.”

The Bucs will be playing their next three games against Pacific University. Pacific University had a 6-9 NWC record while Whitworth stands at 5-10 in the NWC. The games will be on April 13 and 14 in Forest Grove, Ore.

Contact Sasha Siclait at [email protected]