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Laurie Turner, Athletic Director

2007 Northwest Conference Champions
 
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Pacific Lutheran Univ.
Tacoma, WA 98447
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April 12, 2007

BASEBALL: 14th-Ranked Lutes Host Whitman in Three-Game Series

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran hosts the Whitman College Missionaries in a three-game series at the PLU diamond. The teams play a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday followed by a single game at noon on Sunday.

PLU JUMPS TO NO. 14: Pacific Lutheran, which has won seven straight games and 21 of its last 24, is ranked 14th in the nation and third in the West Region in this week’s American Baseball Coaches Association / Collegiate Baseball poll. The Lutes, 24-6 this season, were unranked in the previous national poll, though they were ranked seventh in the West Region. The Lutes were mentioned in the “others receiving votes” category in the ABCA preseason national poll conducted during the fall. After they lost three-of-four games during a February trip to Anthem, Ariz., the Lutes dropped out of the ABCA poll altogether.

GOING FOR THE TITLE: Pacific Lutheran currently leads the Northwest Conference with a 13-2 record and is seeking the program's first conference title since Pacific Lutheran College won consecutive Evergreen Conference championships in 1953-54. However, there is still plenty of baseball yet to be played this season. In addition to hosting Whitman in a three-game series this weekend, the Lutes will head to Whitworth for another weekend series on April 21-22, then greet cross-town rival and NWC foe Puget Sound in a three-game series to close out the regular season on April 28-29. The Lutes lead George Fox by three games in the loss column and Linfield by four games in the loss column. PLU has the tiebreaker advantage over George Fox after sweeping the Bruins, but Linfield owns the tiebreaker over the Lutes after taking two of three in the teams’ conference series opener in early March.

DIPIETRO MAKES IT THREE IN FOUR: As the weekly Northwest Conference honors were released early Monday, Pacific Lutheran pitcher Joe DiPietro appeared in a familiar place. For the third time in four weeks, he was named Northwest Conference Pitcher of the Week. In the first of a three-game series against Willamette, he tossed a complete game shutout last Saturday, scattering four hits while striking out seven and walking only three. The right-handed senior out of Eisenhower High School in Yakima picked up his fifth win against no losses in conference. In 43 innings thrown in conference action he has a 0.63 earned run average, allowing four runs on 23 hits while walking just 10 and striking out 27 batters. On the season he is 8-1 with a 1.41 ERA in 70 innings pitched.

MASTER THIEF: Ryan Thorne, a senior centerfielder from Kent, is on the verge of breaking a 14-year-old record for stolen bases in a season. David Sandberg established the current record with 29 steals in the 1994 season. With nine games left to play during the regular season, Thorne has already swiped 29 bases in 32 attempts. He is currently batting .303 with a .407 on-base percentage on the season. He earned second team all-conference honors in 2006.

WHITEHALL IS NEW RBI CHAMP: Justin Whitehall has been a consistent RBI producer during his four-year Pacific Lutheran baseball career, and that effort has resulted in him moving into the top spot on the PLU baseball career list. Whitehall, a 2006 first team all-conference outfielder, now has 105 runs batted in during his career, surpassing the previous record of 104 established by Jay Chennault, who played from 1997-2000. Whitehall’s best run-producing year came in 2006 when he drove in 34, but this year he already has 31 with nine games remaining in the regular season.

ABOUT WHITMAN: The Missionaries travel to the Parkland Plains with an overall record of 5-21. Whitman is sitting in last place in the Northwest Conference, but don’t overlook the men from Walla Walla. Last week the Missionaries were able snag a NWC win when they scored nine runs in the last inning to beat the Puget Sound, 15-14. On offense, the Missionaries are hitting .256 as a team and average a little under six runs per game. Sophomore Matt Morris-Rosenfeld, out of Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, is hitting .349, followed by Luke Marshall at .311 and Austin Shackelford at .309. Shackelford has blasted 30 hits, six doubles and has driven in 29 runs already this season. Sean Day leads the team in earned run average with 6.91. Whitman’s head coach is Casey Powell, who was a former NWC Player of the Year when he played at Linfield.

LUTES SWEEP WILLAMETTE: Pacific Lutheran swept its fourth straight Northwest Conference series, beating Willamette 7-0 and 14-6 on Saturday, then coming back to take a 4-1 decision on Sunday. Joe DiPietro continued to dominate Northwest Conference hitters, and Justin Whitehall hit two homers and drove in five runs to lead Pacific Lutheran on Friday afternoon. DiPietro went the distance against the Bearcats, allowing four hits while striking out seven and walking three. Whitehall had three hits in the first game, including his third homer of the season with no one on base in the fifth. Jordan Post had a two-out solo homer, his fourth round-tripper of the season, to get the Lutes going in the first inning. Bryce Depew drove in a run with a single in PLU's three-run second, and he added a two-out, two-run double to put the Lutes ahead 6-0 in the third inning. Kris Hansen added a pair of hits to PLU's 10-hit attack. Whitehall got the Lutes off to a strong start in the second game with his three-run blast. His clutch hit came with two outs and only after Post and Tyler Green kept the inning alive with back-to-back base hits. PLU held a 7-4 lead before putting the game away with seven runs in the final three innings. Brandon Sales hit a three-run double in the seventh inning and Whitehall hit a single for an RBI in the eighth. In the ninth, Ryan Thorne drove in two runs with a double, and he came in on Jordan Post's double. Sales led the Lutes with four hits, two runs and three RBI. Whitehall had two hits and four RBI, Post added three hits, and Thorne scored three runs and stole three bases. Hunter Simpson picked up the win for the Lutes in relief, allowing two runs on three hits in 4 1/3 innings of work. On Saturday, Brett Brunner and Dylan Stanford combined to hold Willamette to five hits in the 4-1 triumph. Brunner, 5-2 for the season, went eight innings, giving up one earned run on five hits and three walks while striking out six. Stanford came on with no outs in the ninth inning to record his third save and end the game. Thorne led the Lutes offensively, going 4-for-4 and stealing three bases for the second straight game. Sales, the team’s leading hitter with a .420 average, slugged a solo home run in the fourth inning that gave PLU a 3-0 lead.

- PLU -