PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College baseball used a pair of strong starting pitching performances and a consistent two-out approach on offense, to sweep visiting Whitman College on Saturday at Jerry Gatto Field.
 
THE BASICS 
 
Lewis & Clark 7, Whitman 6
Lewis & Clark 9, Whitman 3
(Lewis & Clark 9-9, Northwest Conference 4-3) 
(Whitman 5-12, NWC 2-6) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Sophomore Sam Burchi and junior Owen Eisen combined to limit the Blues to four earned runs in 13 innings pitched. Sophomore Matt Stanislavsky and senior Nate Kerr came on in relief and shut the door in both games, to help Lewis & Clark earn their first conference doubleheader sweep of the season. 
 
Offensively, Lewis & Clark racked up 16 runs on 22 hits, 11 walks and four hit by pitches. The River Otters jumped out to 6-0 leads in both games and scored 12 of their 16 runs with two outs. 
 
GAME ONE RECAP 
 
Burchi shut the Blues down for 6+ innings in his first start of the season and Stanislavsky stranded the bases loaded in the top of the nine to close out a 7-6 win. 
 
Burchi, who was making his first start of the season and second of his career, went 6.2 innings and scattered three hits, two walks and four runs (three earned). The southpaw added six strikeouts to move to 2-0 on the season. 
 
Stanislavsky had a rocky start to his outing, before righting the ship and sealing the win. The sophomore threw 2.1 innings and allowed two hits, two walks and two runs, while striking out four. 
 
Juniors Bret Potter and Gavin Mangano paced the offense. Potter clubbed a home run and finished 2-4 with a run scored and a team-high four RBI. Mangano added a solo home run of his own and tacked on two runs scored and two RBI. 
 
Junior Michael Aikawa recorded two hits, a run scored, an RBI, two walks and a double. Junior Eli Steinhaus chipped in a base hit, two runs scored and two walks. The top-four in the lineup, Steinhaus, Aikawa, Potter and Mangano, combined for six of the team's seven hits, six runs and all seven RBI. 
 
Lewis & Clark jumped all over Whitman starter Jack Finn to grab a 3-0 lead after three and stretched their advantage to 6-0 in the fourth. 
 
Aikawa doubled with one out in the bottom of the first and Mangano followed with a moonshot to left-center to make it 2-0. 
 
The River Otters added to their lead in the third, when Potter led off with a blast to left-center to push the lead to 3-0. 
 
Lewis & Clark doubled their advantage in the fourth. First-year Garrett Lewis and senior Brandon Gonzaga led off with a walk and a hit by pitch. With one out and runners on the corners, Aikawa singled to center field to plate Gonzaga to make it 4-0. Potter added a two-run single to right field with two outs to score Steinhaus and Mangano. 
 
While the offense was consistently making Whitman pitchers work to get through every inning, Burchi was powering through the Blues offense. He allowed just one hit through the first four innings and retired the side in order in the second and fourth. 
 
Whitman scratched across a single run in the fifth and sixth innings to shave the deficit to 6-2. Lewis & Clark added a key insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Steinhaus led off with a single, stole second and took third on a Mangano fly out. Lewis & Clark made it 7-2 when Potter hit a grounder up the middle that looked like a tailor-made, double-play ball. The junior raced down the line and beat the throw to first to score Steinhaus and make it 7-2. 
 
Whitman put together their one big inning of the day in the top of the seventh. With two out and a runner on second, Burchi walked a batter to end his outing. The River Otters turned the ball over to Stanislavsky who hit the next batter and allowed a grand slam to right field to Landon Runyan. 
 
Stanislavsky would immediately bounce back. He struck out the final batter of the seventh and struck out the side in the eighth. In the ninth inning, Whitman put the first two runners on with a single and a walk. The Blues would put down a sac bunt to put the go-ahead run on second with one out. Stanislavsky would induce a pop up to first and then intentionally walked Runyan. With the bases loaded and two outs, Jonah Chang hit a weak grounder to third and Aikawa stepped up on the bag to seal the win. 
 
GAME TWO RECAP 
 
Lewis & Clark scored all nine runs with two outs and Eisen and Kerr combined to limit Whitman to strand 13 Blues on the bases. 
 
Eisen earned his second win of the season by throwing 5.1 innings. The junior scattered seven hits, two walks and one run and struck out four. Kerr came on in relief for the second time this season and earned his first save of the year. The senior allowed five hits, two walks and two runs in 3.2 innings. 
 
Five River Otters posted multiple hits and eight players scored in game two. 
 
Mangano and sophomore Will Michelman led the team with three hits apiece. Mangano went 3-5 with a run scored and an RBI. Michelman chipped in three hits, two runs scored, an RBI and a walk. 
 
Junior Dylan Lee produced a team-high four RBI in the contest. The first baseman finished 2-5 with a run scored, four RBI and his first collegiate home run. Potter (two runs) and junior Evyn Lewis (one run) each registered two hits. 
 
Lewis & Clark scored runs in five of the first six innings - to race out to a 9-1 advantage. 
 
In the first inning, Lewis & Clark recorded four-straight, two-out singles to grab a 2-0 lead. Mangano and Potter started the rally with back-to-back singles. Michelman and Lee followed with RBI singles to make it 2-0. 
 
Steinhaus extended the lead to 3-0 in the second, when he belted an opposite-field homer with two outs. 
 
The River Otters tacked on two more runs in the fourth. E. Lewis and Garrett Lewis started the frame with back-to-back singles. With two down, Aikawa laced a single through the left field to score E. Lewis. Mangano beat out an infield single to shortstop to plate G. Lewis to make it 5-0. 
 
Lewis & Clark added a single run in the fifth. Michelman led off with a single and was ruled safe on a throwing error on a grounder to short. With the bases loaded and one out, senior Brandon Gonzaga lifted a fly ball into foul territory and the Blues left fielder tracked it down, but it allowed Michelman to tag up and score from third. 
 
Whitman scored their lone run against Eisen in the sixth. The Blues used three-straight singles to break up the shutout and Nate Petz followed with a single to load the bases with one out. Kerr came out of the bullpen and induced a ground-ball, double play, to get out of the jam. 
 
Lewis & Clark immediately responded. With no one on and two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Potter and Michelman singled and Lee crushed a home run just inside the left-field foul pole for a 9-1 lead. 
 
Whitman scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning but that's as much as they could manage in a 9-3 defeat. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS 

• Mangano extended his hitting streak to 16 games to start the season. His 16-game streak is two shy of Aikawa's 18-game mark (2025-26) for the longest hitting streak by a River Otter since 2013. Jakob Ghammachi ('24) and Jack Thomson ('16) posted streaks of 17 and 16 games respectively. 
• Burchi's second career start was a big improvement over his lone start as a first year. He allowed three hits, two walks and four earned runs on the road at nationally-ranked Pomona-Pitzer on April 4, 2025. This season, Burchi has posted a team-best 2.41 ERA in 18.2 innings. His 6.2 innings pitched on Saturday was the longest outing by a River Otters pitcher this year. 
• Potter posted his team-leading ninth and 10^th multi-hit games of the season. 
• With the sweep, Lewis & Clark earned their first series victory over the Blues since 2023. The River Otters have only won the season series against Whitman three times (2022, 23, 26) since 2017. 
• G. Lewis finished the day 1-5 with two walks, two hit by pitches and a run scored. The first year is hitting .400 this season (6-15) with a .591 on-base percentage.  

WHO'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will aim for their first NWC series sweep since 2025, when they swept George Fox University (April 12-13). First pitch on Sunday is scheduled for Noon.