The Whitworth baseball team is off to a fast start in
Northwest Conference play.
The Pirates swept a doubleheader on Saturday at Merkel Field
against the University of Puget Sound. Whitworth was able to win a close one in
the opener, a 4-2 victory, and then broke the afternoon game open with an offensive
outburst in the late innings for a 12-3 win.
Whitworth showed its offensive prowess late in the second
game, after entering the seventh trailing, 3-1. The Pirates scored four in the
seventh and seven in the eighth to run away with the win.
Jeremy Druffel led the 15-hit attack with four base knocks of
his own. The biggest one of Druffel's hits was his seventh-inning grand slam that
gave Whitworth its first lead of the contest.
Carson Blumenthal scattered 11 hits and gave up three runs
in a complete-game effort to improve to 3-0 on the season.
With the score tied, 2-2, in the sixth inning of the first
game, it was Thomas Wakem who came through for Whitworth. A groundball to
second scored the go-ahead run for the Pirates, as they were able to hold off
Puget Sound in the later innings for the 4-2 win.
Dan Scheibe struck out 11 in 6 1/3 innings of work for the win
and Jason Renner closed the door for the final 2 2/3 innings for an extended
save.
