Box Score SPOKANE, Wash. -- A six-run seventh inning put the Whitworth Pirates out of reach after the Lewis & Clark Pioneers were within two halfway through the game. The Pios lost 11-3 on Saturday at Merkel Field, as the Pirates swept the three-game series.
Sean Shepherd (pictured below right) got the Pioneers out in front in the top of the first with an RBI single to score Bradley Lezak, who had led off with a double. Similarly in the second inning, Spencer Gutterman started the Pios with a double down the leftfield line, moving to third on Michael Pangelinan's sacrifice bunt. Ben Beck put down an infield single to score Gutterman, tying the game, 2-2, entering the bottom of the second inning.
The scoring stalled for the Pios from there, as Lewis & Clark didn't plate another run until Connor Eggleston's single in the eighth inning, but by that point, the Pioneers trailed by eight runs.
John Trupin pitched 3 2/3 innings for Lewis & Clark, allowing nine hits and four runs, three earned. He didn't walk or strike out a batter, as his record dropped to 0-3 this season. Jack Silva and Nat Richman each pitched over an inning in relief, while Holden Jones, Austin Conniff and Blake Howell were used as well.
Ryan Kingma earned the win for Whitworth, and JD Page threw three innings for the save.
No one for the Pios had a multi-hit day, but Matt Donovan had a fifth-inning double, the third of the game for Lewis & Clark. Cooper Larson and Nick Lockwood also had hits.
The loss drops the Pios to 3-12 in the Northwest Conference this season, and 11-18 overall. Lewis & Clark hosts Whitman on Apr. 2-3 for a three-game series. The Pioneers are 3-0 against the Missionaries this year.
Other Northwest Conference Scores - Saturday
Pacific 16, Pomona-Pitzer 11
Pacific Lutheran 4, George Fox 2 (11 inn.)
Puget Sound 12, Whitman 4
Linfield 7, Willamette 3
