WHITTIER, Calif. – The University of Puget Sound baseball team suffered a pair of close losses on Saturday in southern California. The Loggers (7-7) lost 12-10 in a back-and-forth slugfest to Whittier before losing 8-7 to Claremont.

Game 1 vs. Whittier

Runs came in bunches for both teams as both teams were swinging hot bats. The Loggers opened up the scoring with two runs in the top of the first and another in the top of the second. Will Mentor hit a sacrifice fly to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead and Craig Driver knocked in the Loggers' run in the second for a 3-0 lead.

Whittier (11-10) came roaring back with a grand slam from Andrew Vallejo in the bottom of the second after a Logger error extended the inning.

Whittier continued to keep its foot on the gas offensively as the Poets scored at one run in each of the next six frames.

Mentor picked up another RBI in the top of the fifth to cut the deficit to 6-4. However, the Poets scored two to go up 8-4 in the bottom half and added another run in the bottom of the sixth for a five-run lead.

The Logger bats burst back to life in the seventh when they scored six runs on five hits with four Poet errors to regain the lead 10-9. Mentor picked up his third RBI of the game in the inning. He finished 2-for-4 with three RBI. Matt Cox also tripled in a run and Casey Coberly brought in another with a single. Kainoa Correa also picked up a pinch-hit RBI, after the four Whittier errors extended the inning, with a single to right.

"Offensively, we're tough to stop for nine innings. Eventually we're going to break through and score runs," commented head coach Brian Billings. "We're doing good things offensively and there are days we put it all together. The last few games we just haven't been able to put it all together."

Whittier responded with a run in the eighth after Vallejo tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Three Logger errors then led to two go-ahead runs for the Poets in the eighth and they held on for the victory after a scoreless ninth.

In the second game of the day, the Loggers traveled to Claremont and lost 8-7. Stats are currently not available for that game.

The Loggers conclude their southern California road trip with a game at Redlands tomorrow.