SPOKANE, Wash.  Whitman baseball continued its winning ways with a doubleheader sweep Tuesday afternoon of host Whitworth University, taking the twin bill from the Pirates by scores of 12-10 and 12-4 in Northwest Conference action at Merkel Field.

The sweep extends a win streak to five games for the Blues (12-12, 7-4 NWC) who took three at George Fox University over the weekend. Whitworth slips to 10-12 overall and 5-6 in the league with Tuesday's losses.

In each game the Blues' bats started humming from the opening inning, scoring five runs in the top of the first to begin Game 1, and pushing four across to start Game 2.

The opener saw Whitman add four more runs in the second to break out to a 9-0 cushion for starting pitcher Jimmy Smiley.

Leadoff batter Anthony Lim worked Whitworth starter T.J. Orchard for a walk to get the ball rolling in the first.

During the nine-run barrage, Tyler Lewis singled and doubled and scored twice, Alex Behrman singled twice and scored once, and Joseph Zimmer earned a walk and scored then later doubled and scored.

Of Whitman's starting nine in the batting order, all of them earned at least one visit to the base paths over those two big innings.

Smiley faced just one batter over the minimum in his first three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth when the Pirates put up five runs on the scoreboard to bite into what had become a 10-0 lead at that point.

The lead dwindled further in the late innings as Whitworth scored once in the seventh and added three in the eighth off Blues relievers to pull within a run at 10-9.

Bradley Tiefenthaler had a tough time keeping Whitman off the bases in the top of the ninth. The reliever induced a fly out to start the frame, but hit the next three batters. Darren Crosby came in for Tiefenthaler, only to walk the first batter he faced to allow another run, struck out the next batter, then uncorked a wild pitch to allow Whitman's 12th run to race across the plate.

A leadoff Pirate double in the bottom of the inning eventually turned into a run, but Brendan Henry ended the threat and earned the save, his fourth, with a game-ending double play.

Smiley (3-1) would pick up the win, tossing 6.0 innings in which he allowed five runs on eight hits and a walk, striking out three.

Lim was at it again at the start of Game 2, rapping out a double into the right-center field gap off Whitworth starter Tim Bever.

A Lewis sacrifice bunt moved Lim to third before Zimmer earned first upon getting hit by a Bever offering.

Lucas Thrun's two-RBI double into left-center plated Lewis and Zimmer, and then Thrun jogged home with Kyle Reisman's two-run home run over the left field wall for a quick 4-0 lead.

Lewis came back around with two outs and a runner on in the second, and stroked one of Bever's tosses over the centerfield fence for a 6-0 lead.

An unearned run in the third, a Lim solo home run in the fourth, and three manufactured runs in the sixth upped the advantage to 11-0.

Henry came off the mound of Game 1 and stepped back up on the bump to start Game 2, and if it weren't for Whitworth's opening-game rally, the first-year right-hander might have gotten a little complacent.

Instead, he allowed just four base runners in five innings, only two of which advanced as far as second base. Though he ran into trouble in the sixth -- courtesy of a three-run homer by the Pirates' JT Phelan -- Henry did close out the inning, his last, with the Blues leading 11-3.

Each team would add one more run, but otherwise Whitman reliever Tristan Henry shut the door on any Pirate hopes for another rally.

Perrin went 3.0 innings allowing one unearned run, helping Henry (2-1) earn the win after his six-inning, three-run outing.

Lewis, Zimmer and Thrun collected five hits each on the day, with Thrun knocking in five runs. Behrman and Matthew Sox added four hits apiece, with Sox picking up four RBI.

Whitman scored 24 runs on 33 hits against Whitworth pitching, an extension of their weekend series at George Fox during which they racked up 26 runs on 35 hits in that three-game sweep.

The Blues will look to extend their win streak Saturday and Sunday at home against league leader Pacific Lutheran University in a three-game set. Whitman and the Lutes start a doubleheader Saturday at noon, then play a single game Sunday beginning at noon.