WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Whitman baseball split a doubleheader against visiting Whitworth University Wednesday at Borleske Stadium. The Blues took the opener, 4-2, in a countable Northwest Conference game before dropping the season finale, 12-7, to the Pirates in the nightcap in a non-conference contest.

The win Wednesday gives Whitman (11-12, 6-6 NWC) a season sweep of the league games against Whitworth (12-9, 4-8), including a doubleheader sweep on February 25 at Borleske.

With light rain falling in Wednesday's opener Whitman was able to grab an early lead with a three-run first inning.

Consecutive one-out singles from Lucas Thrun, Joseph Zimmer and Adrian Vela scored one run and set up the rest of the inning. Nick Johnson followed Vela's single into left-center by earning first base after getting hit by Whitworth starting pitcher Darren Crosby.

Crosby induced an infield pop-up from the next batter, but David Johnson's two-out, bases-loaded single through the right side -- with the runners taking off on contact with two outs -- plated Zimmer and Vela to increase the Whitman advantage to 3-0.

The Pirates got one run back in the top of the third with a lead-off home run from Jacob Silva, but consecutive one-out singles from Zimmer, Vela and Johnson in the bottom of the fifth produced another Whitman run, which pushed the Blues' lead back to three, at 4-1.

Blues starter Jimmy Smiley allowed only one run, but didn't earn the decision after giving way to Travis Craven when Smiley had walked the lead-off batter in the fourth.

Craven (2-2) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win, but combined with Garrett Atkinson, Patrick Stanton, Steven Ainsworth and Milo Mincin for a busy day in the bullpen.

Whitworth picked up a run in the eighth but Mincin came on and got the Blues out of a bases-loaded jam, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up the save, his first of the year.

The top of the order -- Brett Williams, Thrun, Zimmer and Vela -- all collected two hits apiece in the victory. Vela and David Johnson each knocked in a pair of runs.

Crosby (1-1) took the loss for Whitworth after surrendering the three first-inning runs.

Game 2, despite the disappearance of any rain clouds, didn't go the way the Blues hoped the momentum from the opener would carry them.

With one out in the top of the first the Pirates picked up a single, another single, a walk to load the bases, a short RBI-single to left field, and then a grand-slam home run from Jordan McGowan to jump on Whitman starter John Lyon.

The Blues cut into the five-run deficit in the third but saw a lead-off in the top of the next inning turn into another run for Whitworth.

Trailing 6-1, with one grand slam in the books, Whitman pieced together a rally in the bottom of the fourth, initiated by Tyler Lewis' scorching double just inside the third-base bag with one out.

A pitching change resulted in a strikeout for out number two, but Cole Edwards re-engaged the rally with a double into right, scoring Lewis.

Court Osborn followed with a single -- his second single in as many innings -- up the middle to bring Edwards racing home for another run.

Williams reached after being hit, then Anthony Lim found the gap in right-center field to bring Osborne around for the inning's third run.

Two innings later the come-back took a blow when the Pirates bashed their second grand slam of the game.

Whitman added two runs in the seventh, and another in the eighth but the two long-balls with the bases packed proved too large of a hill to climb.

Lyon (1-1) pitched five innings and was saddled with the loss, while the third Pirate pitcher of the game, Matthew Young (2-2), was credited with the win after tossing 1 and 1/3 innings of two-hit, scoreless ball.

Edwards banged out three hits and two RBI for Whitman in the loss. Zimmer added two more hits to his day, and was joined in the multi-hit parade by Lim, Lewis and Osborn.

Whitman heads West for its next battles, traveling to Tacoma, Washington, for a four-game set against 12th-ranked Pacific Lutheran University on Saturday and Sunday.