The Whitman men’s baseball team was unable to shake up the Northwest Conference standings this last weekend, losing all three of its games to conference-leading Pacific Lutheran University. Whitman lost 21-6 and 11-1 on Friday, April 2, and 23-1 on Saturday, April 3. The Missionaries fell to 3-23 for the season and are currently struggling to break out of a 10-game losing streak.
The Lutes had no trouble scoring all weekend against the Missionaries, starting in the second inning of the Friday’s first game when the big-stick-carrying visitors racked up eight runs off of Whitman sophomore pitcher Eric Tolleson. Three Lute players had four hits, including right fielder Josh Takayoshi who had his first home run of the season. Tolleson would only pitch four innings, giving up 12 hits and 12 earned runs in a little less than half a game’s work. His replacement, first-year Tyler Grisdale, would fare little better against the hard-swinging Lutes, giving up eight earned runs over the remaining five innings.
Few members of the crowd expected the late game to turn into a pitcher’s duel, but that is exactly what happened for the first five innings of Friday’s second game. First-year John Nortz was on the mound for the Missionaries against PLU senior pitcher Robert Bleeker. It would be almost six innings before either team would put a run on the scoreboard, with Lutes lead-off batter Jaron Iwakami striking first blood with an RBI single to left. That single seemed to break the Lutes from their trance and remind them that they lead the Northwest Conference in batting; PLU would go on to score at least one run in each of the remaining innings. Nortz started strong, allowing only two hits before surrendering that first fateful run in the top of the sixth, but faded down the stretch. Unfortunately for him, Whitman’s lack of reliable relief pitching forced him to play out the innings.
The Missionaries threatened to score in the bottom of the sixth when two walks, a well-executed sacrifice bunt and another walk loaded the bases-with two outs for senior Blaine Mercado, Whitman’s RBI leader. Sadly, Mercado would not get a chance to add to his RBI total as senior Mitch Hannoosh was called out while attempting to steal home after a wild pitch, shutting the door on a Missionaries rally.
While the Whitman men will be able to take away some positives from Friday’s late game, Saturday’s blowout seems best left forgotten. The Lutes romped to eight runs off nine hits in the first two innings and never looked back, finishing the game with 23 runs on 20 hits. Mercado, pitching this time, was victimized for 16 hits and 13 earned runs. Whitman would not score until the ninth inning as PLU’s Scott Wall improved his record to 4-1.
“He was so effective,” said junior captain Erik Korsmo. “He was hitting every spot I asked him to hit. His change-up kept the batters off-balance, he was just in the zone. Everything was working for him.”
There is little good to say about this game, but the Missionaries do have some good things that they can take away from this weekend. Nortz’s pitching during game two was exceptional, and with better luck on offense this game could’ve ended very differently. Several individual position players have been playing well, especially Korsmo, who continues to lead the team in batting average after going 3-9 with two walks over the weekend. The blowouts were definitely ugly, but PLU leads the conference in team batting and is third in team pitching, while Whitman is near the bottom of the conference in both categories.
Losing season such as this one can really wear on a teams psyche, however, Korsmo insists the team is maintaining their mental health.
“[The losing streak] doesn’t affect our concentration too much,” said Korsmo. “We don’t think about what we’ve done in past games, we just learn and move on. We are really looking at next weekend. The losing streak doesn’t really affect us beyond what we learned.”
The Whitman men will try to shake off the disappointment of this latest home stand and regroup as they travel to Forest Grove, Ore. to challenge the Pacific University Boxers to back-to-back double headers Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11.
