Pitching, schedule favor Whits in quest for NWC title
Whitworth coach Keith Ward is nearly ready to give his 2006 Pirates the highest praise a coach can.
“I consider this probably the best team I’ve had at Whitworth, they’re doing everything,” said Ward, in his ninth season as Whitworth’s head coach.
But there is a qualifier: “If we can just continue to play well,” he added.
The Pirates don’t have a gaudy overall record (16-13), but Ward points out Whitworth played 11 of its 14 non-conference games against scholarship schools (as a member of the NCAA Division III, Whitworth doesn’t offer athletic scholarships).
That tough non-conference schedule has paid dividends in Northwest Conference play.
The Pirates are 10-5 in the NWC, fourth place but just 21/2 games behind leader George Fox. They have already played the three teams ahead of them.
“To tell you the truth, we have a favorable (remaining) schedule,” Ward said. “(But) it’s not going to be easy, because Lewis & Clark is much improved and we need three (wins).”
Lewis & Clark (9-23, 4-13) comes to Spokane this weekend for three games, starting with a Friday doubleheader. One of the Pioneers’ conference wins came last week against second-place Linfield. The Pirates won 2 of 3 at Willamette last week.
“Yes, we have a favorable schedule,” Ward said, “but, with baseball, if you don’t come to play, and you don’t pitch and play defense, you can get beat.”
That hasn’t been a problem since the series with George Fox (the Pirates made 12 errors in dropping two of three and have just nine errors since).
In conference games, the Pirates are atop the ERA statistics (“We’ve never led the league in pitching,” Ward said) and NWC teams are hitting a conference-worst .251 against them.
It all starts with the starters. Cody Person, Brandon Zimmerman and Steve Hare are a combined 12-6. All but Person are local high school products (Zimmerman, Shadle Park; Hare, North Central).
“We’re doing this with mainly Spokane kids,” he said. “We have something like 12 from Spokane alone. That’s important to us.”
Around the area
WSU: It’s a big weekend for the Cougars (22-12 overall), and it’s one that starts a day early. Because of Easter, Pac-10 teams play their three-game sets starting Thursday. That’s when Cal invades Pullman for a 6 p.m. Pac-10 game.
The Bears were 16-16 overall going into Tuesday’s game with Hawaii and, like the Cougs, 4-5 in Pac-10 play. Cal, again like WSU, was in Southern California last weekend, though the Bears were 0-3 at USC while the Cougs were 1-2 against UCLA.
The Cougs’ bullpen came through in WSU’s lone win, with four relievers combining on 72/3 innings of scoreless relief. Nick Cebula earned the win, his first, and Travis Webb (Lewis and Clark) the save, his third. But the next day, in the series rubber game, the bullpen couldn’t replicate the success, giving up seven runs in 31/3 innings of a 10-8 loss.
Jay Miller raised his season hits total to 59 (and his career mark to 278) with two more over the weekend (the Cougars single-season hit mark is 108, set by John Olerud in 1988), but it was brother Jeff who had the big weekend. The junior had five hits, including his team-leading sixth home run.
Gonzaga: The rainy weekend not only resulted in a one-day postponement (from Sunday to Monday) and site change (from Avista to Spokane Falls), it also saw the end of GU’s nine-game winning streak, and knocked the Zags from sole possession of first in the West Coast Conference.
GU goes on the road Thursday for the first time in conference play, facing Saint Mary’s (16-15 overall, 3-3), which was 2-1 at Loyola Marymount last weekend.
The GU offense continued to shine, led by catcher Dustin Colclough. The junior transfer from San Jose City College had six hits to raise his average to .369.
Community Colleges of Spokane: The rain played havoc with the Sasquatch’s schedule as well. They played only one game on its regularly scheduled date.
The Sasquatch travel to Yakima for a doubleheader today, then host Treasure Valley in a noon doubleheader Saturday.