TACOMA, Wash. - Milo Mincin tossed three-plus combined innings to earn two saves in a Northwest Conference doubleheader sweep by the Whitman College baseball team at the University of Puget Sound (9-23, 8-12 NWC) on Friday at Logger Field. The Blues (17-15, 12-8 NWC) took the opener 7-4 then completed the sweep with a 2-1 nightcap win.

Game 1
Travis Craven struck out a season-high nine hitters and the Blues used a big four-run fourth inning to open the doubleheader with a 7-4 win.

David Johnson led Whitman with two runs and two hits, one each coming in his team's big fourth inning. Kyle Reisman posted a hit and scored a pair of runs with Jake Wishart adding one run, two hits and one RBI.

The fourth inning saw the Blues take advantage of three errors by the Logger infield and manufacture a 4-1 lead. Kevin Nakamura's double proved to be the big hit of the inning, driving home both Wishart and Johnson to give the Blues a three-run lead. Two innings later, a bases loaded hit from Brett Williams drove home a pair of runs to add to the Whitman lead.

The Loggers made a game of it with three runs in the eighth inning. Inserted in the seventh inning for Cravens, Tristan Kalnins surrendered hits from each of the first three batters, the third an RBI double from Hunter Riley. Mincin gave up another run scoring double one batter later but was able to retire the next three UPS batters and get out of the inning with the lead intact.

One inning later, Whitman gave Mincin an insurance run when Alex Behrman drove home Tyler Lewis who had doubled to open the inning.

Craven (3-5) gave up his one hit and one run in six and two-thirds innings for the win with Davis Miller (2-3) giving up six runs, five unearned, in the loss for the Loggers.

Game 2
The backend of the twinbill saw strong outings from both pitching staffs with Blues starter Eric Ma (5-1) besting Tyler Huling (0-4). Ma, lifted for Mincin to start the eighth, allowed one run in seven complete innings for the win. Mincin tossed two scoreless innings for his seventh save.

Whitman again capitalized on several miscues from the Logger defense in the fourth inning to score the game's opening run. Matthew Sox reach on a fielding error to open the inning, then after a Lucas Thrun walk and a Huling wild pitch, the Blues had runners at second and third with no outs. Another error allowed Sox to score but Huling was able to get out of the inning relatively unscathed after forcing Johnson into a double play and getting Wishart to fly out to end the inning.

UPS evened the game in the sixth when Kyle Strash, after tripling in the second at bat of the inning, tagged up and scored off a pop fly from Quinlan Mason. One half inning later the Blues scored what turned out to be the game winner. Wishart navigated to third base with one out after singling, stealing second, then taking third on a Joe Brennan wild pitch. Behrman was able to score Wishart after legging out a grounder to the left side of the infield.

Whitman will look to close out its first series sweep when the Blues and Loggers retake the field Saturday for a single game at 12:00 p.m.