TACOMA, Washington – Rivals meet for the first time this baseball season when Puget Sound hosts Pacific for a three-game Northwest Conference series, April 1-2.
 
Around the NWC
Puget Sound is one of five NWC teams over .500 (15-9, 9-8 NWC). However, the Loggers are currently on the outside looking in. Pacific (12-5 NWC), Willamette (10-5), Lewis & Clark (9-5), and Whitman (8-6) are the top four teams in the conference - and only four qualify for the NWC Tournament.  
 
Pushing 40
On March 5, 2023, Dylan Joyce became the first Logger in school history to reach 30 career home runs. Since that record-setting home run, he has gone yard six more times. Joyce homered twice in the series at George Fox last week (March 25-26), giving him 11 for the season. In addition to home runs and RBI (35), Joyce leads the Loggers in hitting (.383) this season.
 
Steaks on the plate
Dylan Joyce is up to 122 runs batted in for this career. He is nine RBI away from tying the school record held by Olin Wick '04.
 
Drew
Drew Kamihara enters the weekend with a 13-game hitting streak. The sophomore is batting .392 (20-for-51) since March 5, and he has scored 12 runs in those 13 games.
 
Gabe it all
Gabe Huante is hitting .365 this season, which ranks second on the team. He enters this weekend with an eight-game hitting streak - batting .467 (14-for-30) during those eight games.
 
Quality in quantity
Davis Franklin notched his fifth quality start of the season at George Fox (March 25), allowing just two earned runs in six innings. He surrendered only five hits and a walk. Franklin holds a 3.26 ERA and a 6-1 record this season.
 
Location is everything
Brett Harvey surrendered multiple walks in each of his first five starts of the season, resulting in a 5.00 ERA. In his last three appearances, however, Harvey has issued only one walk through 19.0 innings. During that stretch, his ERA is 2.37. Overall, Harvey holds a 3.91 ERA through 46.0 innings this season.
 
Scouting Pacific Lutheran (10-15, 4-9 NWC)
The Lutes recently returned from a trip to southern California (March 24-25), where they lost to Redlands once, lost to Whittier twice, but finished the trip with a win over the Poets. The PLU pitching staff has a 7.63 ERA, but Spencer Howell has been a bright spot. He has a 2.64 ERA in 47.2 innings (seven starts). Braeden Lundberg leads the team in hitting (.354). Ashton Barton has a team-high 13 doubles, and he's tied with Andy Schmitz for the team lead in RBI (21).