Baseball lengthens season with wins against Whitworth

With only three losses so far in their North West Conference season, Pacific’s baseball program has shown that they are good enough to be on top. Pacific is holding onto a one game lead over Whitworth and hopes to take first in conference this year.
“We knew we would be in this situation and we just need to keep playing our caliber of ball,” said senior Jared Van Hoon. “We always try to take each game one at a time and being in first place is just a reflection of our hard work day in a day out, our coaching staff, and the overall talent and depth that we have,”
Van Hoon  has been a key player for the Boxers in this season and seasons prior.
So far this season, one of Van Hoon’s cherished memories was his bases-loaded single up-the-middle that clinched them their 7-6 win over the No. 2-ranked Linfield Wildcats.
“There was no better feeling concluding a team effort with a series win.”
According to the coaching staff, winning the Linfield series was a great start to the conference season.
“It affirmed our team’s belief that we can compete and beat anybody in the conference,” said Head Coach Greg Bradley.
The last time the baseball team was in first place was in 2002.
Bradley attributes such a great season to very good pitching, fielding and timely hitting.
Bradley also mentioned he is excited to see all the attention both locally and nationally on Pacific baseball.
“I have a great coaching staff beside me that works very hard to help baseball be successful,” said Bradley.
Van Hoon wanted people to know that the thing he is looking forward to the most is, “the dog pile with the conference championship in our hands.”
Overall, the Pacific baseball team is very excited about their accomplishments this year and they hope to extend the season as far as they can.
This weekend, 10 seniors participating in senior day and with all of them key players on the team, they want to seal the No. 1 spot now more then ever.
The boxers lost Tuesday, April 17 to Corban College  7-2 in a non-conference game.
The boxers are looking to bounce back in the remaining six conference games they have left to play.
This weekend the baseball team will play their last home games against Puget Sound for a Saturday double-header and Sunday single game, both starting at noon.
Rob Ditrick will be starting on the mound for game one.