FRESNO, Calif. – The Western Oregon baseball team closed out their series with the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds on Saturday, winning 9-3 to split the four-game set at FPU Diamond.

It was a six-run seventh inning that put it over the top for Western Oregon (2-2), tallying their highest-scoring game of the season. The Wolves established their first lead in the top of the second when Blayze Arcano laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring in Connor McCord. It was the first of three RBI on Saturday for Arcano. That lead extended to 2-0 when Mitchell Hulse crushed a solo home run to center field an inning later.

The lead for the Wolves held at 2-0 into the seventh inning thanks to an impressive start on the mound for David Gibons. Gibons threw four shutout innings, giving up just one hit while striking out five and walking two. He was followed by five relievers, getting scoreless work from four of them.

The Wolves extended their lead in a big way in the seventh inning, plating six runs on just three hits, being aided by two errors. All of the scoring came with two outs to make every run of the inning unearned. The rally began when Jacob Maiben singled to right to score Hulse who reached on a walk earlier in the inning. All three hits would be singles in the inning while three walks and multiple defensive mistakes extended the frame out for 11 batters.

Fresno Pacific (4-6) was never able to recover from the eight-run deficit, plating all three of their runs in the bottom of the seventh. Michael Warkentin singled up the middle to score two of the runs while Trent Greene doubled in the third.

"This weekend was really good for us," said outfielder Blayze Arcano. "It showed how much we have to improve, but we are in a good spot to start from at this point."

Arcano finished Saturday 1-for-4 with three RBI.

"Today we played a lot better as a whole and put our nose to the grindstone for all nine innings," added Connor McCord. "The weekend overall had its bumps and bruises, but we split the series and have some things to work on before our home opener against Billings in two weeks."

McCord had another multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a double, triple, three runs scored and two walks. In four games, McCord has recorded eight hits, including five doubles and a triple for a .571 batting average to open the season.

Ryan Santa Cruz also rolled out a big offensive game, finishing 2-for-4 with a run, two RBI and a walk.

On the mound, the Western Oregon pitching staff combined to strike out 11, walk seven and allow three runs on just four hits. After David Gibons started and went the first four innings, Michael Moore came on in relief to get his first win of the season tossing a shutout inning that included a strikeout.

Next up, Western Oregon has a two-week break before their next games, hosting the MSUB Yellowjackets in a four-game series Feb. 29 and March 1. Both days will see doubleheaders beginning at noon PST at WOU Baseball Field.