April 27, 2008

PLU Finishes Season With Split at Puget Sound

Game One
Game Two

Trey Watt

Geoff Gabler

TACOMA - Pacific Lutheran lost the first game to a walk-off home run but came back with 17 hits to win the nightcap in the team's season-ending Northwest Conference baseball doubleheader at Puget Sound on Sunday afternoon.

The Loggers used Gregorio Beck's two-out homer in the bottom of the seventh to beat the Lutes, 9-8, in the first game. Brandon Sales had four hits and Geoff Gabler capped a great offensive series with three hits as the Lutes won the finale, 11-5.

As was the case in Saturday's second game loss to Puget Sound, the PLU pitching staff simply could not stop the Loggers' offense. The hosts collected 16 hits in Sunday's opener after getting 20 in their 18-16 win on Saturday.

Pacific Lutheran (24-14-2 overall / 21-11 NWC) actually led 5-3 entering the bottom of the fourth when Puget Sound broke through for five runs. The Lutes whittled away at the lead and eventually scored two runs on a Matt Akridge base hit in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 8-8. That led to Beck's heroics against Jeremy Ellison, PLU's fifth pitcher in the game. Unfortunately for the senior, it was the first earned run he has allowed in two years as a member of the Lutes pitching staff.

Gabler had three singles and Ben Shively added two doubles and a single to PLU's 12-hit attack.

Trey Watt improved his season record to 6-1 with a complete-game effort in the finale. He allowed nine hits while walking two and striking out four.

Watt got plenty of support from the Lutes, who broke open a close 1-0 game with four runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth inning, and it was Gabler who started both rallies. He led off the fifth with a double and scored on a base hit by Ryan Aratani. Sales followed with a hit and Aratani scored on a single by Andrew Hernandez. Sammy Davis laid down a bunt for a hit, scoring Sales, and Shively hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Hernandez.

In the sixth inning, Gabler led off with a single and Aratani followed with a single. Consecutive walks to Sales and Hernandez brought in Gabler, and Kris Hansen followed with a pinch-hit two-run single. After a walk to Josh Takayoshi, the final run scored when Carl Benton was hit by a pitch for a school record 26th time this season. The Lutes scored their final two runs in the seventh on doubles by Gabler and Sales and a single by pinch hitter Ryan Boyles.

Sales was 4-for-4 during the game and Gabler finished 3-for-5 with two doubles and three runs scored. Aratani, Davis and Shively all added a pair of hits for the Lutes.

Pacific Lutheran, which returned only two position starters and one starting pitcher from the 2007 Northwest Conference championship team, finished 21-11 and in third place in the nine-team conference standings.

- PLU -