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Pacific Lutheran Univ.
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May 14, 2007

BASEBALL: Lutes Travel To California For NCAA West Region

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran will play Austin College from Sherman, Texas, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in a first-round game of the NCAA Division III West Region baseball tournament hosted by Chapman University in Orange, Calif. The winner of that game plays at 1 p.m. Thursday, while the loser goes into the loser's bracket for a 9:30 a.m. Thursday contest. The tournament is double elimination. PLU's games at the regional tournament can be heard locally on KLAY 1180 AM, or online at www.klay1180.com. Some or all of the games will be tape delayed.

LUTES BATTLE THE KANGAROOS: The Lutes, the No. 2 seed in the region, take a 32-7 record into the game, while Austin, the No. 7 seed in the seven-team region, has a 22-23 record. Pacific Lutheran won the Northwest Conference championship – the program’s first conference title of any kind in 53 years – to qualify for Division III postseason play. This year marks the first time that PLU has played in the NCAA baseball tournament. Austin won the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament title in an upset to earn a spot at the regional tournament. Freshman John Reisig leads the offensive strike for the 'Roos with a .396 batting average and 53 hits. Matt Finke leads the team in runs batted in with 40. Patrick Ray is a long-ball threat with six home runs this season. On the mound, Clint Rushing has a 3.86 earned run average and a 7-3 win-loss record, along with 42 strikeouts. Will Chermak has a 7-3 record with a 4.11 ERA and 50 strikeouts. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Texas Lutheran versus Pomona-Pitzer clash (see more information below) at 1 p.m. on Thursday, while the two losers will battle in a loser-out contest at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

MORE TOURNEY INFO: In the tournament's opening game at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, PLU's fellow Northwest Conference member, George Fox, plays Texas-Dallas. The Bruins, runners-up in the Northwest Conference and seeded fifth in the regional, will square off against the fourth-seeded Texas-Dallas Comets (32-11). Texas-Dallas is ranked 28th in the ABCA / NCAA D-III national poll, while George Fox is unranked but received votes for the top 30. In the second game scheduled for 1 p.m., the third-seeded Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs (35-8-1) will go against sixth-seeded Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (29-11). TLU, ranked 9th in the ABCA / NCAA D-III national poll, won the American Southwest Conference Tournament title and the ASC Pool A automatic bid. Pitzer’s Sagehens, ranked 21st nationally, won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crown and a Pool A automatic berth. Chapman (35-5) is the No. 1-seeded team in the region and has a bye until the fourth game of the day, when the Panthers will play the loser of Game 1 between George Fox and Texas-Dallas. That game is scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m. Chapman, has defeated Texas Lutheran in each of the last two regional tournaments in Orange and is ranked No. 2 nationally in the ABCA / NCAA D-III poll.

NATIONAL TOURNAMENT: The West Region tournament is one of eight getting underway either Wednesday or Thursday this week. The eight region winners advance to the Division III World Series scheduled for May 25-29 at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: Two schools in the regional tournament have won NCAA Division III national championships. George Fox won the 2004 national title after earning a Pool C bid to the regional tournament. Chapman won the 2003 national championship and last year finished third.

FIELDING PERCENTAGE: Pacific Lutheran was ranked No. 1 in fielding percentage in last week’s NCAA Division III baseball statistics. At the time that the stats were released, the Lutes had compiled a .976 fielding percentage and ranked just ahead of Northwest Conference foe George Fox, which has a .975 fielding percentage. Pacific Lutheran was nationally ranked in six team categories and a total of five Lute players were ranked on seven individual lists.

MASTER THIEF: Earlier this season, senior centerfielder Ryan Thorne broke the program’s single-season record for stolen bases when he swiped number 30, sending him past David Sandberg, who had 29 steals in 1994. Thorne added two more steals against Whitworth and three against Puget Sound to push his record-setting mark to 35 (in 40 attempts) this year. As mentioned in an earlier note, he also established a new career record when he swiped second base in Sunday's game, giving him 69 and moving him past Tony Whitley (1974-76).

WHITEHALL PUTS HIS NAME IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Justin Whitehall has entered the record books as the all-time career leader in RBIs, passing Jason Chennault who had 104 RBIs between 1997 and 2000. This season, Whitehall is hitting .286 with 42 hits, 10 doubles, four home runs and 38 RBIs, and he has 112 RBI in his career.

ANOTHER RECORD FOR THE BOOKS: The 2007 has been a record-setting one for the Lutes, and one of the records that may not be broken for awhile is the one for wins in a season. PLU is 32-7 heading into the regional tournament, blasting away the old record of 26 wins set by the 1994 team.

- PLU -