WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Needing a little help from teams on other diamonds in the Northwest the Whitman baseball first needed to handle their own part of the 'fate' equation on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the Blues came up short in a doubleheader against Northwest Conference leader Linfield College -- losing 7-2 and 4-1 -- at Borleske Stadium, while the other results in league action also tipped away from the good of the Blues.

Saturday's results finish off the season for Whitman (17-20, 11-13 NWC), which saw a four-game improvement in its overall record and a three-win improvement in league play.

Linfield (24-10, 19-5) clinched the regular season title with the twinbill sweep and will host the four-team league tournament commencing Friday afternoon.

The Blues had the unfortunate luck in playing the top team in the league standings while fighting for that fourth playoff spot, while the other two teams battling with Whitman were facing teams beneath them in the league standings.

Saturday day on Senior Day at Borleske senior Nick Johnson was handed the ball as the starter for Game 1 and he put up a valiant effort to keep his team in the playoff hunt.

Johnson escaped trouble in the first inning, surrendered single runs in the second and third, and had an easy fourth.

A lead-off single from Lucas Thrun to start the bottom half of the fourth turned into a run that halved the deficit.

Thrun moved to second on a balk by Linfield starter Cason Cunningham, and raced all the way home for the run on David Johnson's two-out RBI-single into center field.

Linfield scuffed up Nick Johnson for a run in the fifth, but the Blues added one themselves in the bottom half of the frame on a two-out RBI-single into center by Brett Williams, sending Cole Edwards across the plate.

The Wildcats finally put the big inning together against Nick Johnson in the sixth. Four singles and a hit batter chased Johnson who exited with two outs.

Linfield found only one more run off relievers Garrett Atkinson, Patrick Stanton, Steven Ainsworth and John Lyon. But Cunningham and Wildcat reliever Connor Scott quieted the Whitman bats that had threatened early in the game.

The walks off the mound of Nick Johnson, Atkinson and Stanton were sad farewells to a trio of departing players. Johnson and Atkinson are graduating players and Stanton is completing his three years at Whitman in its 3-2 plan and will move on to complete his degree elsewhere for the final two years of the program.

Each player was met at the third-base line by teammates who also realized each step was the last from the mound for the departing trio.

The nightcap was an instance of running into a buzz saw for the Whitman bats.

Linfield starter Riley Newman threw a complete game and allowed just one run on four hits and a walk to earn his victory.

Blues starter Eric Ma did his best to equal Newman, though.

Ma threw seven complete innings and surrendered three runs on 10 hits and two walks while fanning five.

All three runs allowed came after inning-opening hits. In the second a double into the left-center gap opened the scoring for Linfield. And a triple to right-center eventually added one run in the third. In the fifth it was a lead-off single up the middle that Ma stabbed at with his glove, deflecting it just far enough away that the batter was able to out-race the throw to first. And later that meek opportunity would turn into another run.

Trailing 3-0 the Blues got one back in the sixth, this time with their own lead-off magic.

Brett Williams found the grass between the center and right fielders for a single, and he came all the way around to score on an ensuing double from Thrun.

That would be the end of even any threats, however, as Newman put the next three batters down in order. He produced a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh, faced only four batters in the eighth, and closed out the win with another 1-2-3 frame in the ninth.

Thrun finished the afternoon with pairs of hits in each game to lead the Blues at the plate. Williams, David Johnson and Thrun each collected one RBI over Saturday's 18 innings of work.

Regardless of the losses Saturday the Whitman team stood tall in the post-game handshake line.

Two seasons ago the Blues won six games, and since the hiring of Brian Kitamura as head coach Whitman has blossomed into a team with nearly triple that amount of victories in a season, and into a team that not only vied for a conference playoff spot but also believed they could take down the top team in the conference to do so.