LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Lewis & Clark College baseball earned a doubleheader sweep over host Occidental College on Saturday to post the program's first 3-0 start to a season since 2004. 

THE BASICS

Lewis & Clark College 11, Occidental 7

Lewis & Clark 6, Occidental 1 (6 Innings) 

(Lewis & Clark 3-0) 

(Occidental 0-3) 

HOW IT HAPPENED

For the second-straight day Lewis & Clark used strong starting pitching, a hot start with the bats and a consistent barrage of baserunners to knock off the host Tigers. 

Sophomore first baseman Will Heron had a huge day for the Pioneers. Heron finished with three hits in both games and posted a line of 6-8 with two runs, four RBI, two walks and a double. 

GAME ONE RECAP 

Sophomore Brennen Davis hit a pair of home runs and four different Pioneers finished with multiple hits in an 11-7 game one victory. 

Davis was the offensive hero in the opener. He hit a solo shot to give the Pioneers the lead for good in the third and added a three-run home run to blow the game open (9-2) in the sixth inning. 

Heron posted a team-high three hits, one run, two RBI, a double and a walk. Junior Luke Bass chipped in with two hits, including his first home run of the season. Senior Dylan Moore was the final Pio with multiple hits. Moore registered two hits, a double, an RBI and a walk. 

On the mound, sophomore Luke Ritter finished one out shy of a victory. The southpaw went 4.2 innings and allowed four hits, two runs (one earned) and struck out six. Junior Tyler Shimabukuro earned the win after getting the final out of the fifth and going 2.1 innings. Shimabukuro struck out three and allowed two runs (one earned) in his outing. Senior Kevin Kane went the final two innings of the nine-inning game. 

Occidental took their only lead of the three-game set in the first inning but it would be short lived. After going down 1-0 in the first, Lewis & Clark took the lead for good in the third. Freshman Brandon Gonzaga sparked the rally with a leadoff double and scored on a Jack Thomson sac fly. Davis followed with an opposite field homer to right to give the Pios a 2-1 edge. 

Lewis & Clark blew the game open in the fifth and sixth. The Pioneers scored four runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth to grab a 9-3 lead. 

In the fifth, Heron hit a bases-loaded, two-run double to plate Jack Savant and Thomson. Moore followed with a double of his own to score Bass and Jakob Ghammachi drove Heron in with an RBI groundout. Occidental threatened to get right back into the game in the bottom of the inning. The Tigers scored a run on an error and loaded the bases with two outs against Ritter. Lewis & Clark went to the pen and Shimabukuro struck out Ryan Cacatian looking to end the threat. 

Lewis & Clark put the game out of reach in the sixth. After a walk to Savant and a Thomson hit by pitch, Davis hit a three-run shot to almost the exact same spot his first homer of the day went. 

The Pios closed out the scoring with Ghammachi scoring on a wild pitch and a Bass solo home run. 

GAME TWO RECAP 

Senior Brayden Nomura allowed just six baserunners and one run in five innings and the Pioneers scored five runs in the opening three innings, before the setting sun forced the game to be called after six innings.

Nomura was fantastic in his first appearance of the year. He scattered five hits, one walk and struck out five to earn the win. He needed just 76 pitches to get through five innings. Sophomore Ryan Harvey struck out one and allowed one hit in a scoreless sixth. 

The Pioneers top of the order did all of the damage in the contest. Savant, Thomson, Davis, Bass and Heron combined for all seven Lewis & Clark hits, all four of their RBI, six of the team's seven runs and five of the team's nine walks. 

Heron went a perfect 3-3 with a run scored, two RBI and a walk. Thomson went 1-1 with a double and added three walks, two runs scored and an RBI. Junior John Delaney made his season debut and worked a pair of walks. 

The Pioneers jumped out to another hot start. With two outs and Thomson on first after a walk, Bass ripped a run-scoring double and then scampered home on Heron's RBI single. 

Lewis & Clark stretched their advantage to 4-1 in the top of the second. It was another two-out rally. After the first two batters were retired, Jacob Serafini walked and Savant singled to put two on for Thomson. The Pioneers Preseason All-American doubled down the right field line to score Serafini and Savant scored on the next play after a Tigers error. 

Heron played a role in each of the Pios final two runs. In the third, Heron led off with a single, took second on a Mason Lee walk, moved to third on a double play and raced home on a wild pitch. He added an insurance run in the sixth when his two-out RBI single drove in Thomson from second base 

BY THE NUMBERS

• The Pios are off to their best start since 2004. The team's 2-0 start was their best since the program started with a pair of wins over Occidental. Lewis & Clark opened the 2004 campaign 8-0. 
• All six of the Pioneers runs in game two and eight of their 17 runs total on Saturday were scored with two outs. 
• Freshman Joaquin Sandoval, Ryan Sanderson and Gonzaga each made their collegiate debuts in game one on Saturday. Sandoval worked two walks, Sanderson posted a pinch-hit single and Gonzaga hit a double and scored a run. 
• Lewis & Clark finishes the three-game set against Occidental hitting .330 as a team with 31 hits, 29 walks, 27 runs scored and 15 extra-base hits in 23 innings. 
• The Pios three starting pitchers, Brett Pierson, Ritter and Nomura combined to allow just four runs (three earned) over 14.2 innings. 
• With his five walks this weekend, Thomson now sits third in program history and is one shy of becoming the third Pioneer to record 100 career base on balls. 

WHO'S NEXT 

Lewis & Clark will look to finish off the weekend with a win on Sunday against host Whittier College at 11 a.m. Whittier dropped their first three games of the season to the University of Puget Sound.