Walla Walla, Wash.  Whitman followed up their Saturday split with visiting Willamette University by clinching their first Northwest Conference series of 2018, defeating the Bearcats, 5-1, at Borleske Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Willamette hit the pay station first in the top of the second inning as Connor Bailey hit a one-out double to left-center field and scored on a single down the left-field line by Eric Del Prado.

Whitman responded with runs in each of the next two innings to take a lead it would never relinquish.

In the bottom of the third, Matthew Sox reached on an error to open up the frame, and after Anthony Lim walked, the two combined to execute a double steal on the play which, combined with a throwing error by Willamette catcher Jack Brett, allowed Sox to come home and tie the game at 1.

The following inning, Lucas Thrun led off and smashed a ground-rule double to right field, and the Whitman offense took care of the rest, as Kyle Reismann advanced him to third and Brett Williams brought him the final 90 feet on an RBI groundout to make the game 2-1.

From there, it was the Whitman pitching that told the story as Jimmy Smiley and Milo Mincin combined to shutout the Bearcats over the final seven innings of play. Smiley (2-1) pitched 5.1 innings of six-hit ball and struck out one.

Willamette's best chance came in the sixth inning as Colin Anderson came on in relief of Smiley, but was unable to retire the only two men he faced in the game. After giving up back-to-back singles, on came Mincin, who induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

Whitman added three insurance runs in the eighth. Williams used a sacrifice fly to score Tyler Lewis and Alex Behrman's two-run double scored Thrun and Joseph Zimmer to cap scoring on the day.

Mincin then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his first save of the season.

The Blues step out of league play on Tuesday as they welcome Swarthmore (Pa.) College to Borleske for a doubleheader, first pitch scheduled for 12 p.m.