Whitman 13, Northwest Nazarene College 9 (7 innings)
Northwest Nazarene 30, Whitman 5 (9 innings)
First-year coach Travis Feezell and the Whitman baseball team
opened their 1997 season with a 13-9 victory
over Northwest Nazarene College in the seven-inning first game of a
non-conference doubleheader at Borleske Stadium. Northwest Nazarene
rebounded to win the nightcap 30-5 in nine innings.
Sven Berg went the distance on the mound for Whitman in game one,
scattering five hits. Only three of NNC's nine runs were earned.
"Sven didn't have a lot of zip on the ball, but he changed speeds
very, very well," Feezell said. "He also will throw the ball harder as he
gets more of his arm strength back."
Berg tired in the seventh inning. The Crusaders took advantage of two errors and two walks to scored four times.
Casey Riffe ignited the offense in game one with five hits, including a
two-run home run, in five trips to the plate. Merrill Bevan smacked two doubles
and two singles.
The Missionaries took the lead with three runs in the third inning. Singles by Ben McPherren, Riffe and Wade Lockett were the key hits in the outburst.
Whitman then busted the game open with five runs in the fifth. After Marty Parsons walked and was sacrificed to second by Andrew O'Donnell, Bevan doubled in one run and later scored on McPherren's single. Riffe's hit-and-run single, a Lucas Ward RBI-groundout and a Crusader fielding error accounted for the last two runs.
NNC took charge early in the second game, scoring 10 times in the first inning. "There coach must have really lit a fire under them," Feezell said. "They were swinging the bats extremely well in the second game."
Riffe added a double and single in the second game. Bevan and Damian Tutt also had singles.
Whitman 7, Western Baptist 6 (7 innings)
Western Baptist 3, Whitman 1 (7 innings)
Weather wreaked havoc with Whitman's planned participation in the
four-team Diamond Classic baseball tournament, which Lewis & Clark College
had organized for March 7-9 in the Portland area.
Rather than play single games against Western Baptist, St. Martin's and Lewis & Clark, Whitman was rescheduled to play a Saturday doubleheader against Western Baptist in Salem. The twinbill began at 4 p.m., ended at about 10 p.m. and left each school with a victory.
Whitman won the opener 7-6 before Western Baptist rebounded for a 3-1 victory in the nightcap. Both games were seven innings.
The reworked tournament format also called for Whitman and St. Martin's to play a single game on Sunday. That game was rained out, however.
In Saturday's opener against Western Baptist, Whitman's Sven Berg won his second game in as many starts. He pitched into the seventh inning, scattering seven hits and five walks while striking out two. He gave up five runs, four of them earned, before giving way to relief pitcher Ben McPherren with a 7-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh.
"It's very early in the season, and Sven just got tired," Whitman coach Travis Feezell said. "You could see it in the sixth inning when he started to hit his 80 to 90 pitch limit."
After Berg walked the first batter in the seventh, Feezell made the pitching change to McPherren. A second walk, two hits and an error left Whitman clinging to a 7-6 lead -- still with no outs in the inning. That's when McPherren found his groove, getting a fly out and two strike-outs to preserve the victory.
Whitman tallied all seven of its runs in the fifth and sixth innings. With two outs in the fifth, the Missionaries used three walks and clutch hits by Wade Lockett and Rob Butler. Lockett doubled home one run and Butler singled in two more.
In the sixth inning, again with two outs, Casey Riffe doubled home two runs and Lucas Ward added a run-scoring double.
Ward went the distance on the mound for Whitman in the second game, giving
up three hits, six walks and three earned runs. He fanned two.
"Most of those walks came early in the game, when Lucas struggled a little bit," Feezell said. "Over the last four innings, he was just great. He retired the side in order in each of the last three innings."
"Unfortunately, the guy throwing for Western Baptist also threw a great game," Feezell added. "I just wish we would have swung the bats a little better that second game."
Whitman notched its only run after Lockett walked, stole second and moved to third on Riffe's sacrifice fly to right field. Lockett also scored on the play when the throw to third was off mark.
The Missionaries stole five bases in the two games and turned four double
plays. Shortstop Merrill Bevan and second baseman Marty Parsons turned
three of those twin killings. Bevan also nabbed a line drive to double a
runner off first.
"I was very pleased with the defense," Feezell said. "We only had two errors the whole day."
Whitman 12, Puget Sound 8 (7 innings)
Puget Sound 12, Whitman 3 (7 innings)
Whitman right-hander Sven Berg made it three wins in three outings,
hurling the Missionaries to a 12-8 Northwest Conference victory in the
first game of a doubleheader with the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.
The host Loggers rebounded for a 12-3 victory in the nightcap.
Both games were played on a soggy field in weather conditions that ranged from a steady drizzle to a downpour.
Berg went the distance in the opener, scattering eight hits and surrendering just three earned runs. He held the Loggers scoreless in six of the game's seven innings.
Capitalizing on three Whitman fielding errors, Puget Sound scored all eight of its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to grab an 8-6 lead. The Missionaries responded with four runs in the top of the fifth inning and added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh frame.
Wade Lockett, who had two hits on the day, sparked Whitman's four-run
second inning with a two-run double. Marty Parsons, a freshman, also
had two hits, including a two-run single in the fifth, two runs scored
and an RBI.
Whitman collected 15 hits in all. Casey Riffe smacked a double and two singles, scored two runs and collected one RBI. Rob Butler and Andrew O'Donnell both had two hits and an RBI. Butler also scored a pair of runs. Ben McPherren also had two hits, while Damien Tutt contributed a single, RBI and two runs scored.
"I really thought we played great in the first game, except for the one inning where we kicked the ball around," Whitman coach Travis Feezell said. "Other than the one bad inning in the field, we dominated that game."
Behind the pitching of Lucas Ward, the Missionaries led 2-0 in the second game until Puget Sound scored four times with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Two of those Logger runs were unearned.
"Lucas retired the side in order in the first three innings," Feezell said. Ward hurled the first six innings, leaving with Whitman trailing 5-3. "He threw the ball very well."
McPherren, Lockett and Chris Garratt had Whitman's only hits in the nightcap.
George Fox 9, Whitman 1
George Fox 14, Whitman 1
George Fox 11, Whitman 0
The signs of a 10-day Spring Break layoff were evident as the Whitman
baseball team dropped a three-game Northwest Conference series at George
Fox University on Friday and Saturday, March 28-29. The host Bruins took
both seven-inning games on Friday, 9-1 and 14-1, before
closing out the Missionaries 11-0 in Saturday's nine-inning contest.
"The long layoff definitely hurt us," Whitman coach Travis Feezell said. "But we played a team that is very deep and very well-coached. That's the level at which we need to play to be successful in our conference."
Whitman rapped eight hits and four doubles in Friday's first game. The
Missionaries notched their only run, however, in the sixth inning when
Wade Lockett doubled and scored on Ben McPherren's second double of
the game. Lucas Ward also had a double, while Andrew O'Donnell and Marty
Parsons collected singles.
Sven Berg started on the mound for Whitman and absorbed his first loss in four outings. "Sven looked rusty," Feezell said. "He had a bad first inning and then settled down a little bit after that."
Freshman Chris Garratt relieved in the fourth inning and held George Fox
scoreless the rest of the way. "Chris threw the ball pretty well," Feezell
said. "He was the bright spot on Friday."
The Missionary bats fell silent in Friday's second game. They collected their only two hits, and only run, in the sixth inning on Damien Tutt's single, a walk to Wade Lockett and a RBI single by Casey Riffe.
George Fox broke the game open with a six-run third inning. Garratt again pitched well in relief, after taking over in the fifth inning.
McPherren started on the mound in Sunday's game and held the Bruins scoreless through the first three innings. But George Fox inched in front with two runs in the fourth and a third run in the fifth. The hosts added eight runs in their final three at-bats to win going away.
McPherren had Whitman's only hit in the game, a seventh-inning single.
Eastern Oregon 16, Whitman 4 Rob Butler ripped a double and single, bagged two RBIs and scored a third run, but it wasn't enough as Whitman fell 16-4 in a non-conference game at Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande.
Damien Tutt also doubled in a run for Whitman. Marty Parsons added a run-scoring single, and Lucas Ward had a pair of singles. Andrew O'Donnell and Casey Riffe each had a single.
Whitman 9, Pacific 8 (9 innings)
Wade Lockett stroked a lead-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning
as Whitman rallied for a 9-8 Northwest Conference victory over Pacific
University in the first game of a doubleheader at Borleske Stadium.
Lucas Ward got the pitching victory for the Missionaries.
The game was scheduled for seven innings but Whitman rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh frame to send the contest into extra innings. After Pacific tallied a run in the top of the eighth to take an 8-7 lead, the Missionaries once again rallied with two outs in the bottom of the inning to knot the score at 8-8.
Check back later for more details.