NWC Baseball: Lutes Hold Willamette to Five Hits in 4-1 Win

Centerfielder Ryan Thorne led the Lutes offensively, going 4 for 4 on the day.

Willamette University Baseball Photo: Kevin Hays

SALEM - Brett Brunner and Dylan Stanford combined to hold Willamette University to one run and five hits, as visiting Pacific Lutheran University won a Northwest Conference baseball game, 4-1, on Saturday at John Lewis Field.

PLU, which leads the NWC standings, is now 24-6 overall and 12-2 in the NWC. Willamette drops to 13-15 overall, 6-11 in NWC action.

Brunner, 5-2 on the season, went eight innings, giving up one earned run on five hits and three walks while striking out six.

Stanford came on with no outs in the ninth inning after Brunner hit Willamette’s Grant Yamaguchi to lead off the inning.

Stanford got Matt Rasmussen to ground into a double play, before striking out pinch hitter Colin Young to end the game.

Centerfielder Ryan Thorne led the Lutes offensively, going 4 for 4 on the day.

Also for Pacific Lutheran, Brandon Sales hit 2 for 4, including a solo home run in the fourth inning that gave PLU a 3-0 lead.

Kelly Gilmore, Ty Eriksen, David Tufo and Zach Kimball each went 1 for 3 on the day for Willamette.

Willamette’s lone run came in the fifth inning. Tufo led things off with a double, before Kimball drove Tufo home with a single to right field.

Jarrid Summers went the distance on the mound for Willamette, giving up four runs, three of which were earned, eight hits and two walks in nine innings of work.

He struck out four PLU batters, and dropped to 4-3 on the year.

Willamette returns to action this Tuesday, April 10th, when they play Western Oregon at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer, Ore. First pitch is tentatively set for 7:00 PM (PDT).

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports