March 4, 2007

Lutes Sweep Three-Game Series From Menlo

Game Two Linescore
Game Three Linescore

Jared Simon - game-winning homer

Matt Akridge - two hits, three RBI

ATHERTON, Calif. – Pacific Lutheran won the suspended second game 8-6 and then added a 13-6 victory in the third game on Sunday to sweep a three-game non-conference baseball series from the host Menlo College Oaks.

The Lutes have now won six games in a row and are 9-3 for the season. With the defeats, the Oaks fall to 3-6 for the season.

Pacific Lutheran won Saturday’s first game of the series, 4-3, but trailed 6-5 after seven innings of the second game when it was suspended because of darkness. When the game resumed on Sunday, the Lutes used the long ball to snatch the victory. With two outs and a runner on second base, senior Jared Simon hit his second home run of the season to give the Lutes a 7-6 lead. PLU added the game’s final run when Justin Whitehall hit a double to drive in Jordan Post, who had singled.

The Lutes won the game despite committing four errors. They did collect 10 hits, four of which went for extra bases. Simon was the hitting star with three hits and four runs batted in, including a two-run double in the fourth inning.

Jeff Danforth, the third of four PLU pitchers, picked up the victory by throwing one scoreless inning. Whitehall picked up his second save, giving up a hit and a walk but otherwise working a scoreless ninth inning.

In the final game of the series, the Lutes made the most of wildness on the part of Menlo pitching, scoring eight runs in the first inning six walks, two hit batters and just two base hits. Post had one of the hits, a two-run single. The Lutes added two more runs in the sixth inning on Whitehall’s two-run homer, his second this season, and they scored again in the seventh on Simon’s triple and an RBI single by Matt Akridge.

PLU led 11-0 before the Oaks finally broke through for four runs in the seventh, and both teams scored two runs in the eighth inning, the Lutes getting theirs on a two-run base hit by Akridge.

Whitehall and Akridge both drove in three runs and Akridge and Post collected a pair of PLU’s 12 hits in the game.

Hunter Simpson won his first game of the season against no defeats, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings of work. He struck out five Menlo batters and walked three.

Pacific Lutheran returns to action at 11 a.m. next Saturday with a Northwest Conference doubleheader against Linfield in McMinnville, Ore. The teams will conclude their three-game series with a single nine-inning game starting at noon on Sunday.

- PLU -