Willamette and Whitworth Baseball Series to be Played at Pacific Lutheran

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- This weekend's baseball series between Northwest Conference rivals Willamette University and Whitworth University has been moved from Spokane, Washington, to the campus of Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, Washington, due to wet field conditions at Whitworth's home ballpark. The games will be still be played on Saturday, March 4 and Sunday, March 5.

Pacific Lutheran's baseball field is artificial turf. Willamette will take on the Pirates at PLU in a doubleheader on Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. (PST). The Bearcats and Whitworth will complete the series with a single game on Sunday at 12 p.m.

Willamette begins the series with an 8-5 overall record and a 4-2 mark in the NWC. The Bearcats won two of three games this past weekend against Pacific University. Willamette took the first game in the series, 4-3, but the Boxers won the second game, 5-4 in 11 innings. The Bearcats grabbed the final game, 7-6.

Whitworth is 6-3 on the season and 0-2 in the NWC. The Pirates, who won the NWC regular season title last spring, opened this year's conference schedule with a pair of losses against Whitman College on Saturday, Feb. 25.

The Blues won the first game, 6-5 in 11 innings, and were victorious in the second game, 2-0. The final game in the series was postponed due to the weather. Whitworth defeated Willamette in a non-conference game, 15-4, on Feb. 12.