McMINNVILLE, Ore.  Joseph Zimmer, with Whitman trailing 3-2 in the top of the 7th inning, hit a two-run home run to give the Blues a 4-3 lead that led to a win in their opening game Saturday over Pacific Lutheran University, and providing the Blues with a non-conference victory in their first game of the two-day Northwest Conference Round Robin.

PLU had difficulty the entire game with Blues' leadoff hitter Brett Williams, who was responsible for three of the four runs for Whitman. Williams led off the game with a single, managed to steal second and third, then scored on a sacrifice fly turned error off the bat of Kyle Reisman to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.

Whitman tacked on another run in the second inning as Anthony Nevoso was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and after advancing to third on a single from Anthony Lim, came home on a sacrifice fly by Williams.

The Lutes launched a counter-attack in the top of the third off of Blues starter Steven Ainsworth, as Jacob Bockel hit a three-run home run to give PLU a 3-2 lead.

That advantage would remain until the top of the seventh, as Williams reached base and Zimmer followed him with a two run blast over the left field fence, his second of the year, giving Whitman the lead for good.

In Game 2, Whitman (3-3) could not dig itself out of an early 6-0 hole and fell to Linfield 9-5.

Charlie Carmichael (0-2), struggled to get out of the first inning, as Linfield managed six runs on six hits off the Blues starter, capped by a two run double from the Wildcats' center fielder Jared Evans.  

The Blues responded with a run in each of the next two innings, as Tyler Lewis led off the second with a double and came around to score on an RBI groundout from Jerick Nomura.

Jake Wishart followed that up in the third inning with a solo shot to left field, his first of the year, to cut the deficit to 6-2.

Milo Mincin, on in relief for Carmichael, gave one back to the Wildcats in the bottom of the third inning as Alex Hendra-Brown hit a solo shot of his own to extend the lead back to five. Mincin was otherwise impressive in his appearance, giving up the one run on four hits while striking out four in his 4.0 innings of relief work.

After Linfield scored twice in the sixth to make it 9-2, Whitman answered back in the seventh. Nomura was hit by a pitch to open up the frame, and was followed by back to back singles from Anthony Lim and Williams to load the bases with no one out. The Blues managed a run as Nomura came in to score on a groundball double play hit by Zimmer which cut the inning short with the Blues trailing by six.

Whitman added two more runs in the top of the eighth inning as they had the bases loaded with one out after Wishart was hit by a pitch, followed by singles from John Lyon and Cole Edwards. After a walk was issued to Nomura that forced in Wishart, Lim singled to left field scoring Lyon and cut into Linfield's lead 9-5, but Williams grounded into a double play to end the hope of a late rally.

Whitman concludes the weekend Round Robin with an 11 a.m. non-conference game at George Fox University, followed by another non-conference game at 5 p.m. at Pacific (Ore.) University.