McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Brett Pierson earned his first career shut-out win, and Luke Bass hit an RBI single that put the Lewis & Clark Pioneers ahead in the finale, as the Pios won two over the Linfield Wildcats on Sunday and completed a four-game sweep in the series. It's the first Northwest Conference series sweep for the Pioneers since 2008 and moved the Pios one game behind Whitman atop the NWC standings.

Pierson threw seven innings and struck out six in an 11-0, game one victory that lasted eight innings. Henry Goodier, Sammy Benbow and Jacob Serafini had a pair of RBI apiece.

In game two, Bass scored Tyler Gannon to give the Pios a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning that held on for the win. Stephen Baker earned the win in relief, and Dylan Moore notched his second save of the year. Sam Helms went 3 for 3.

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Key Moments | Game 1

Early in the game, the Pioneers picked up many runs after the first two outs of the inning. In the second with two runners on, Serafini hit a two-out, two-RBI single that scored Bass and Benbow.

Similarly in the fifth, Zack Kon's two-out double followed a single by Jack Thomson. The sequence was the beginning of five straight hits against Linfield starter Grant Knox, who was pulled from the game after four runs scored.

Meanwhile, Pierson retired 15 of 16 Linfield batters from the second inning until the seventh for his first collegiate win. Tyler Shimabukuro threw one inning of scoreless relief. 

Key Moments | Game 2 

Pios starter Jordan Gonzalez yielded a lead-off home run and the Wildcats took a 2-0, first-inning lead. The Pioneers evened things in the third on Michael Contreras' sacrifice fly and Thomson's RBI single, but another Linfield homer by Wyatt Smith put the Wildcats (3-11, 1-5 NWC) back up two.

After Lewis & Clark (5-3, 5-3 NWC) closed the gap to one in the fourth, Contreras led the fifth with a single and advanced on Thomson's groundout. Kon singled to second, which moved Contreras to third. On Gannon's at-bat, Contreras scored, and two batters later, Bass hit a single down the right-field line to score Gannon and give the Pios the eventual game-winning lead.

Helms hit lead-off singles in the third and sixth and added an RBI single in the fourth for his 3 for 3 day. Lewis & Clark overcame three errors to win the game.

Deeper Look

• After five RBI in the opening doubleheader, Gannon added two more on Sunday for a seven-RBI performance (5 for 17, 1 2B, 1 HR)
• Benbow had six RBI in the series, hitting .462 with three extra-base hits (2 2B, 1 HR) and scored four runs
• Benbow and Thomson joined Justin Bailey and Jack Savant with three walks drawn in the seris, while Kon went .308 with two RBI and six runs scored, in part, because of six walks over the four games
• Pierson's shut-out win is the first for a Pios pitcher since Domonic Monozon threw nine scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in a 7-0 win at Pacific Lutheran in Mar. 2019

Looking Ahead

The Pioneers host Pacific for a four-game series next weekend.