Katelyn McLean | Sports Editor

Whitworth baseball opened the Northwest Conference portion of its season at Whitman last weekend, winning Sunday morning’s game 10-7 and pushing their record to 1-3 in conference and 2-9 overall.

The pirates lost both games of Saturday’s doubleheader 4-2 and 8-7 respectively, as well as Sunday night’s game in a close 4-3 battle.  

Freshman outfielder Aiden Morrison’s three hits in three at bats and two runs-batted-in propelled the Pirates offense to victory in game three.

“It was my first games out there, so [I was] not trying to do too much. Just stay within myself and see what happens,” Morrison said.

Whitworth’s high-scoring offense lifted them over the Blues in game three, but head coach CJ Perry was proud of the team’s defensive efforts as well.

“In the ten-run victory, we did a good job of creating defensive pressure – forcing them to make plays on a very windy day,” Perry said.

Junior pitcher Josh Grimes helped Whitworth to victory after allowing two runs on four hits in five innings.

Playing four games in a weekend presented additional challenges for Whitworth, but the team seems happy to be playing again.

“It’s definitely a lot of baseball. I really enjoy it actually. I like baseball, so the more the better. I’m definitely sore after the weekend coming home, but I would play six games every weekend if I could,” Morrison said.

Whitworth hopes to build on that game three success and continue to improve heading into conference play.

“Heading into conference, we have to capitalize offensively with runners in scoring position. For our pitchers, we have to limit walks, hit by pitches and poorly executed pitches in two strike counts. I am hopeful we will see some progress in those areas come this weekend,” Perry said.

“I think there [were] a lot of glimpses of how good we could actually be, so I think just taking the stuff we did really well and make it this whole weekend,” Morrison said.

Whitworth plays four games against Whitman this weekend – Sat. March 27 at 12pm and 3pm, and Sun. March 28 at 11am and 2pm. No spectators are permitted, but the games are available to livestream on whitworthpirates.com