The Whitworth baseball team was swept by Pacific University in a three-game series Forest Grove, Ore.

Saturday the Bucs lost their first game 2-1, their second game 8-1 and Sunday 6-3.

Sophomore Dan Scheibe started game one for the Bucs and went seven innings with two strikeouts. Junior Jason Renner threw one inning and had one strikeout for the Pirates. Pacific University’s Rob Dittrick threw a complete game and had four strikeouts.

“‘G’ [Gerhard Muelheims] played extremely well all weekend and had a consistent approach in every game,” sophomore pitcher Carson Blumenthal said. “Dan pitched really well in game one but we let them score a couple runs in the late innings and just couldn’t come out with a win.”

The Bucs managed to get a hit in the first inning, but scored no runs. It wasn’t until the top of the sixth inning that Whitworth broke a scoreless tie. Freshman third baseman Jeremy Druffel got Whitworth’s only RBI in the top of the sixth for Whitworth.

In the bottom of the seventh inning Pacific came back with one run after a single was hit to left field. Again, Pacific University was able to score another run in the bottom of the eighth inning after a triple was hit to centerfield and the Boxers scored their second run of the game.

Game two started off well for Pacific as they chalked up two runs in the first inning after three hits and two runs scored. Whitworth came out of the top of the second inning with no runs or hits, but Pacific managed to get another run putting them at a two run lead in the bottom of the second.

“In the beginning of the season we were able to string hits together and things were going our way,” junior left fielder Tyler Pfeffer said. “Now we aren’t capitalizing like we should be and we aren’t executing very well.”

Pacific again scored an additional five runs by the bottom of the eighth. Whitworth was able to put a run on the board in the top of the ninth inning after freshman outfielder Blake Thoren scored on a wild pitch, but it wasn’t enough to to close the gap.

“Our offense wasn’t producing the way we would want it to [this weekend] obviously, but it’s definitely something we need to work on and also find a way to execute when we need to,” Blumenthal said.

Sunday’s game was off to a better start than Saturday’s previous games for the Pirates and first baseman Gerhard Muelheims started off the game with a double down the left field line followed by a single hit by freshman second baseman Jeremy Druffel advancing Muelheims to third. Druffel was caught stealing second base, but Muelheims was able to score putting the first run on the board for the Bucs.

Teammate Pfeffer said that Muelheims hit the ball well this weekend. Muelheims was the top hitter on for the Bucs this weekend and has a season batting average of .404.

Whitworth scored their second run in the top of the second inning, but Pacific was able to put up two to Whitworth’s second run in the second inning tying up the game 2-2.

In the top of the third inning the Bucs were once again able to keep up their consistency scoring in each inning and scored their third run of the game after a single was hit by Pfeffer and Muelheims scored.

Pacific came back in the bottom of the fourth inning for two more runs putting them in the lead 4-3. They also scored an additional two in the bottom of the sixth inning and placed themselves at a 6-3 lead.

In the beginning of the season we were able to string hits together and things were going our way,” Pfeffer said. “Now we aren’t capitalizing like we should be and we aren’t executing very well.”

As of now Whitworth has 10-20-1 record for their season.

“We we’re more focused on what we wanted at the end of the season rather than everything it was going to take to achieve the success we wanted,” Blumenthal said.

Whitworth will be playing again April 20 and 21 on their home turf against the Willamette University Bearcats. The Bearcats stand with a 14-18 record for their season.

Contact Sasha Siclait at [email protected]