WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Visiting Pacific Lutheran University took both ends of a doubleheader from host Whitman on Saturday, 10-6 and 13-1, in Northwest Conference baseball action at Borleske Stadium.

The sweep ends a five-game win streak by Whitman (12-14, 7-6 NWC), and allows the Lutes (15-8, 13-2) to put some distance between themselves and second-place Whitman in the league standings.

Game 1 starting pitcher Steven Ainsworth got off to a rocky start in Game 1, surrendering eight runs, four were unearned, before giving way to relief help before the third out of the game.
Pacific Lutheran added another run in the top of the second, but otherwise was held in check by relievers Milo Mincin, Braden Hussey, Aidan Miller, Collin Anderson and Charlie Carmichael.

Hussey, despite giving up a solo home run in the seventh, spearheaded the relief help, going 3 2/3s innings and allowing just that one run on three hits and two walks.

The Blues did their best to battle back in the middle third of the game, putting up crooked numbers in the fourth and sixth, sandwiched around a one-run fifth.

A Brett Williams single followed by an Alex Behrman double kicked off the Whitman fifth, and both eventually came around to score, Williams on an infield RBI groundout by Matthew Sox, and Behrman on an RBI single from Court Osborne.

Lucas Thrun's one-out walk led to the run in the fifth, with the run scoring on a wild pitch.

Lead-off activity in the sixth ignited Whitman's two-run sixth. Sox opened with walk and advanced on an Osborn single through the right side. The two scored later in the frame on a two-RBI single into the gap in right-center field by Thrun.

The Blues would generate only one more base runner over the final three innings, allowing Alex Gregory to pick up his third save of the season. Reliever Andrew Curran had come on in the fifth inning and picked up the win.

The nightcap began differently from the opener, with both starters -- PLU's Cole Johnson and Whitman's Tristan Kalnins -- holding back their opponents through the first three innings.

With a one-run lead in their half of the fourth, however, the Lutes finally got to Kalnins, pushing five runs across to knock Kalnins out of the game.

Whitman trimmed the six-run deficit with a run in the fifth, Anthony Lim's one-out single plated Jerick Nomura from second base, but PLU picked up three in the sixth and four more in the eighth to make the game a runaway.

Kalnins (1-2) took the loss with Johnson (1-3) earning the win while including a three-run home run  plus two more RBIs from earlier in the game to help the PLU offense.

Whitman and the Lutes concluded their three-game set with a single, noon-time game Sunday at Borleske.