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Box Score 2 TACOMA, Washington – Owen Shellhammer tossed his first-career complete game, and Dylan Joyce launched his 10th home run of the season as the Puget Sound baseball team beat Whitworth, 4-1, in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday. The Pirates won the second game in eight innings, 2-1.
Puget Sound 4, Whitworth 1
Shellhammer allowed only three hits and a walk to earn his fifth win of the season. His 3.10 ERA ranked third in the Northwest Conference entering this weekend, and it's down to 2.78 after today.
Joyce gave the Loggers a 1-0 lead in the first inning by blasting a solo home run to straightaway center. Whitworth tied the game, 1-1, in the top of the fifth, but Shellhammer prevented the Pirates from making it a bigger inning. Whitworth loaded the bases with nobody out, but a strikeout, a sac fly, and an infield popup ended the threat.
Davis Miller began the bottom of the fifth inning with a single, and he moved into scoring position on a sac bunt by Makana Murashige. Jackson Bolitho delivered an RBI single to left field, giving the Loggers a 2-1 lead.
The Loggers cushioned that lead in the sixth inning. Jonas Kim scored on a wild pitch, and Miller hit a double that plated Nathan Blocher.
Puget Sound 1, Whitworth 2 (8 inn.)
A game that was scheduled for seven innings needed eight. The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Andrew Matsueda settled down from there and wound up pitching a complete game. He was charged with just one earned run and allowed only four hits and a walk.
Kyle Strash tied the game with an RBI single in the sixth inning.
Extra innings begin with an unearned runner on second base, and the Pirates were able to score that runner with a sac bunt followed by a sac fly.
In the Loggers' home half of the eighth inning, Cody Hirano began as the runner on second base. He moved to third base on a sac bunt by William Gross, but following a strikeout there was two outs on the board.
Hirano then tried to score on a wild pitch, but the ball bounced hard off the backstop. The Whitworth catcher played the quick carom and threw to the pitcher covering the plate to tag out Hirano and end the game.
The Loggers and Pirates have another doubleheader at Logger Field Sunday, May 2, starting at 12 p.m.
