CLAREMONT, Calif.  Whitman picked up a pair of non-conference victories Sunday at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges to sweep the doubleheader and take the final three games of the four-game set from the Stags. The Blues, who pounded out 18 runs in their 10-6 and 8-4 wins over their hosts Sunday at Arce Field, were spurred by Joseph Zimmer's two home runs and a pair of first-time starting pitchers getting the job done.

Whitman took the second of two Saturday and with Sunday's sweep improve to 3-1 after their opening weekend. The Stags slip to 1-3 to begin their season.

Zimmer finished Sunday with five hits including the two home runs and a double. He knocked in four runners and scored four times himself.

On the mound Travis Craven started Game 1 and fell an out short of earning the victory after lasting 4 and 2/3s innings during which he surrendered one earned, and one unearned run on seven hits while fanning five. Steven Ainsworth (1-0) came on for Craven in the bottom of the fifth to gain the final out, then went 3 and 1/3 innings to pick up the win as the Whitman bats pushed seven runs across the plate in the fifth and sixth innings.

CMS in the early going of the opener sandwiched singular runs around a Whitman run in the top of the third. That slim deficit would be erased in the top of the fifth when Whitman scored three times.

A pair of walks and a Zimmer single loaded the bases, and a wild pitch brought home the first run. The other two came around on an error by the CMS second baseman to lift the Blues to a 4-2 lead.

The Stags got one back in the bottom half of the inning but the Blues broke things open with four more runs in the top of the sixth. An RBI-ground out, single up the middle, double to left-center and a throwing error by the Stags' third baseman accounted for the runs that provided Ainsworth, and eventually Patrick Stanton in the final inning, with all the cushion they'd need.

Zimmer bashed a two-run homer into the trees beyond the fence in left field to tack on two more in the eighth.

Zimmer, Brett Williams and Anthony Lim, in the 1-2-3 spots in the order, collected nine of the team's 10 hits during the win.

The nightcap was scheduled to go seven innings, but the two teams looked as if they were ready to go extra innings again, after playing 10 in the opener of the series Saturday afternoon.

Tied at 4-4 through five, the Blues manufactured the go-ahead run in the top of the sixth.

Nick Johnson slashed a one-out double down the left field line, then gave way to pinch-runner Jake Wishart. A strikeout added the second out to help the Stags but pinch-hitter John Lyons fulfilled his spot duty by rapping out a single deep to left which allowed Wishart to race home from second.

Zimmer ignited a two-out...rally?...in the top of the seventh by clocking his second homer of the day, again to left field. Adrian Vela followed and reached after being hit by CMS hurler John O'Malley. Then Lucas Thrun singled to right, with Wishart then loading the bases after also being hit by O'Malley. David Johnson found green grass in center field for a two-RBI single to add the final runs of the game.

Jimmy Smiley (1-0), a redshirt-first-year making his first start, earned the win in Game 2, going 4 and 1/3 innings and allowing four runs on seven hits and a walk, and striking out four. Garret Atkinson and Kyle Reisman combined to surrender just two hits without a walk in 2 and 2/3s scoreless innings of relief work.

Thrun, Nick Johnson and David Johnson registered multiple hits in the Game 2 victory with David Johnson collecting a pair of RBIs.

Whitman opens Northwest Conference play with its next games, a pair of doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday at Pacific (Ore.) University in Forest Grove, Oregon.