by Sasha Siclait
The baseball team was back on the road again this weekend as they took on the Pacific Lutheran Lutes in Tacoma, Wash.
Saturday the baseball team played a double header and ended lost both games, the first game 4-3 and the second game 5-4.
A rainy weekend in Tacoma made for two long games due to the weather conditions and sophomore center fielder Erik Nikssarian said this caused rain delays during the game. Although the weather wasn’t preferable for the Bucs on Saturday they still displayed two solid pitching games.
“Pitching in both games was awesome,” Nikssarian said. “Dan Scheibe started the first game and went at least six strong innings and when Taylor Isadore came in he also pitched well.”
The first game on Saturday started off slow and lacked offense early on, with only two hits from the Pirates and none from the Lutes until the third inning. The Lutes had a single to left field, and with another hit to left field the Lutes were able to round in a runner and score their first run.
Still in the fourth and fifth inning the Bucs weren’t solidifying a lot of offense on the field as the Lutes solidified three outs in a row both innings.
In the top of the sixth inning the Bucs were able to score two runs taking the lead nearing the end of the game, but the Lutes again were able to come back with three runs in the bottom of the seventh.
“We faced two very talented starting pitchers in game one and game two,” Ramsay said. “When the other team has their best guys going you have to cash in when run scoring opportunities present themselves. I think we failed to do that a number of times.”
Although the Pirates were able to score again in the top of the eighth inning, it wasn’t enough and fell short 4-3.
Sophomore Carson Blumenthal started off the second game on the hill for the Bucs, pitching seven solid innings, and had a total of seven strikeouts for the game.
“Carson[Blumenthal] pitched awesome to start off the game,” Nikssarian said. Nikssarian also said that pitching was one of their strengths overall for both games on Saturday.
Not only were the Pirates, pitchers able to come through with strong pitching, but they also faced two of the top pitchers in the conference.
“The other pitchers were good, two of the best in the whole league, and I think that Dan [Scheibe] and I threw just as well if not better than they did,” Blumenthal said. “We gave our team a chance to win.”
The Bucs struggled to execute defensively on the field though, and gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“I think we could have limited a little better defensively,” Ramsay said. “In close ball games any second chance you give a team can prove to be devastating, we gave one too many second chances today.”
The Lutes scored their first run in the game in the bottom of the third inning after a single to left field, and in the top of the fourth the Bucs scored their first after junior first baseman Justin Liu singled to right field for an RBI.
Whitworth scored two additional runs in the top of the fifth when junior left fielder Tyler Pfeffer singled out to right field bringing Nikssarian in for their second run. The third run was scored by freshman third baseman Jeremy Druffel after an error by Lutes defense.
Both teams scored in the seventh inning, but the Bucs lost the led when the Lutes came back with a run two RBIs at the bottom of the ninth inning winning the game 5-4.
“Part of it is that its easy to get complacent when you’re on top, and I think if we stick with our original approach and fight every at bat and every pitch we’ll be fine as a team,” Scheibe said. “Last year we had a motto that we didn’t lose on Sundays, and we didn’t. I just hope we take these two losses in the conference and build on them.”
The Bucs held true to their motto Sunday afternoon as they took on the Lutes once again and beat them 9-8. Starting off the game scoring a run in the first inning, the Bucs immediately displayed that they weren’t getting swept this weekend.
“ We came out from beginning and put runs on them right away,” Pfeffer said. “We came out stronger than we did on Saturday.”
Pfeffer had an RBI in the top of the first inning out to right field and sophomore shortstop Nick Motsinger tallied an RBI in the second inning for the Bucs putting them in the lead right away.
“We put the ball in play more and there were not as many strikeouts as Saturday,” Pfeffer said. “We put pressure on defense which ended up being beneficial for us.”
The fourth inning was a big stretch for the Bucs when junior second baseman Danny Jordan had a triple down the right field line and Jordan rounded in three RBIs.
In the bottom of the fifth inning the Lutes were able to fight back with four runs, but the Bucs chalked up another three runs in the top of the sixth inning.
Ramsay said that the Bucs weren’t discouraged from their previous games.
“I think our players understand that it’s a long season and that if you fret for too long about any particular loss, you put yourself in a bad spot for future games,” Ramsay said. “Like all sports, sooner or later you’re going to lose, fortunately we control how we respond to it.”
The Bucs stuck to their motto and won with a 9-8 victory over the Lutes Sunday afternoon.
“We like to look at ourselves as a championship team and a championship game is always on Sunday,” Pfeffer said.
Whitworth will take on Linfield Wildcats on March 23 and 24 at Whitworth University.
Contact Sasha Siclait at ssiclait16@my.whitworth.edu