April 5, 2008

Watt Pitches Lutes to Win Over Menlo; Oaks Win Opener

Game One
Game Two

Trey Watt - stymies Menlo offense

Brandon Sales - six hits in twinbill

PARKLAND, Wash. – Trey Watt gave up just one unearned run in eight innings as Pacific Lutheran salvaged a split of a non-conference baseball doubleheader with the visiting Menlo College Oaks on Saturday at the PLU diamond.

Watt, a right-handed sophomore, allowed only three hits and struck out six Menlo batters as the Lutes scored an 8-3 victory in the second game. Menlo won the opener, 6-4 in 12 innings, on Rob Monderine’s two-run homer to rightfield.

Watt improved his season record to 3-1 with the second game gem. The one run he allowed scored on a two-out error in the second, and after that he allowed just four more base runners through his eight innings of work.

The Lutes scored three times in the first inning on Kris Hansen’s sacrifice fly and Geoff Gabler’s two-run single. They added three more runs in the second inning on an error, Ryan Aratani’s ground out and Brandon Sales’ hustling two-out double.

PLU’s final two runs came in the eighth on a run-scoring double by Andrew Hernandez and a sacrifice fly by Josh Takayoshi. Menlo used two hits and three PLU errors to score twice in the top of the ninth. Pacific Lutheran finished the game with six miscues after committing three errors in the opener.

Menlo took a 2-0 lead on Will McLoughlin’s two-run single in the second inning of the opener. The Lutes got one back in the bottom of the inning on Aratani’s base hit, and they tied the game in the fifth on Carl Benton’s single.

The Oaks regained a 3-2 lead in the seventh on a PLU error, but the hosts came back to tie the game in the eighth inning on a RBI single by Sales. Again, Menlo tallied a run in the top of the ninth on Dwayne Haakma’s run-scoring single, but the Lutes tied it in the ninth when Matt Akridge led off with a single and scored on a clutch one-out RBI triple by Takayoshi. The Lutes tried to win the game then and there but a squeeze bunt was popped into the air and turned into an inning-ending double play.

Monderine finally won the game for the visitors from the Bay Area with a drive off of Ian Opsal in the 12th inning.

McLoughlin and Robert McDonald both collected four hits in the doubleheader for the Oaks, while Sales had a hot day for the Lutes with six hits in nine at-bats.

The teams conclude their three-game series with a nine-inning contest scheduled to start at noon on Sunday.

- PLU -