LOS ANGELES, Calif. -On the road in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) tilt this afternoon, the Cal Lutheran baseball team clawed past the Occidental College Tigers, 4-1, behind a complete game performance from Jake Petersen in a low-scoring pitcher's duel.
Facing just two batters over the minimum, Petersen retired the side in order in eight of the nine frames, allowing just two hits and a single run to cross the plate, which happened in the sixth inning. In the 9.0 innings, he struck out a season-high 10 batters and got 13 ground ball outs to improve to 4-1 on the year. The Kingsmen defense played flawless baseball behind the southpaw.
After a 1-2-3 inning in the top of both the first and second, the CLU bats were able to manufacture their first run of the game in the third. Davey Casciola bunted for a single and came in to score on a single to centerfield by Justin Cana.
Sending six men to the plate in the top of the sixth the Kingsmen pushed across the ultimate winning run. Spencer DuBois led off the inning with a single up the middle and after the Tigers intentionally walked Petersen to load the bases Ramsey Abushahla made them pay with an RBI on a fielder's choice to plate DuBois.
CLU capitalized on a pair of Occidental errors in the seventh with Gabe Gunter reaching base and advancing to second on the miscue before Nick Cohan pinch ran and came around to score on the second misplayed ball of the inning.
A trio of singles in the ninth from Abushahla, Cohan and Casciola, the only player on either side to collect more than one hit, produced a fourth run for the Violet and Gold as Casciola drove in Abushahla for the final scoring play of the game.
Occidental (8-10, 6-4 SCIAC) got hits from Jonathan Brooks, the only extra base hit of the game, which was a double, and Walker Marks, who scored the lone Tigers run. Joseph King also went the distance, but was tagged with the loss.
Cal Lutheran (11-3, 8-2 SCIAC) and Occidental continue their series tomorrow, Saturday, March 15, during a double header with first pitch slated for 11:00 a.m. inside of Ullman Stadium on George "Sparky" Anderson Field.
Box Score: CLU 4, OXY 1
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