March 21, 2008

Bleecker's Complete Game Gives Lutes a Split

Game One
Game Two

SALEM, Ore. - Robert Bleecker pitched a complete game to lead Pacific Lutheran to a 6-2 win in the second game and a split of a Northwest Conference baseball doubleheader with Willamette on Friday afternoon at John Lewis Field. The host Bearcats won the opener, 10-8.

Bleecker improved his season record to 3-0, scattering nine hits and striking out nine while walking one in his nine innings of work.

The Lutes (9-8-2 overall, 7-7 NWC) managed just six hits in the game against a pair of Willamette pitchers, but they got a pair of big hits at key times during the game. PLU gave Bleecker a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a three-run home run by Kris Hansen, his second of the season. That lead held until late in the game when the Bearcats (11-9, 6-4) scored a run in the eighth inning to cut its deficit to two runs.

PLU scored three insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning. Sammy Davis led off the inning with a single and later scored on a Willamette error, and pinch hitter Tyler Libadia finished the scoring with a two-run double. The Bearcats tallied one more time against Bleecker, but he finished for his first complete game of the campaign.

In the opener, PLU jumped ahead with a three-run first, but the Bearcats rallied with four-run innings in both the fourth and the seventh innings.

PLU junior first baseman Jordan Post had a pair of hits in the game, including a solo homer in the third inning. Post now has three home runs this season. Ryan Aratani also had two hits and drove in three runs, and leadoff hitter Josh Takayoshi collected a pair of hits.

The Lutes committed three errors in the game, accounting for six unearned runs out of the Bearcats' total of 10.

- PLU -