THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The final day of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) baseball season featured Cal Lutheran hosting La Verne and Caltech at George "Sparky" Anderson Field inside of Ullman Stadium. The host school used 10-5 and 16-0 (seven innings) victories over the Leopards and Beavers, respectively, to clinch the 2014 SCIAC title.
Cal Lutheran becomes repeat winners, earning the honor for the second consecutive season and 11th time in school history as the Violet and Gold stretch their win-streak to nine.
In game one, the Kingsmen put up a crooked number in the bottom of the second on a pair of LV errors. The bats then exploded for five runs in the third as Nicho DellaValle and Davey Casciola each walked, Jake Petersen and Ramsey Abushahla both singled up the middle and Collin Crowl singled to the right side before designated hitter Gabe Gunter stroked a bases clearing double down the left field line to give CLU a 6-0 lead.
La Verne cut its deficit in half with a two-out, three-run homerun from Mark Jebbia in the top of the fourth after he and starting pitcher Scott Peters battled. The first two outs of the innings came via fly balls to Abushahla and Peters earned the final out of the inning with a called third strike.
In the CLU part of the fourth, back-to-back singles from Petersen and Abushahla with two down knocked LV starting pitcher Phil Schick (2-7) from the hill. Diego Cortez came on in relief and issued a four-pitch walk before Casciola promptly made the Leos pay with an RBI single to left. Unfortunately, the bases were left loaded as the CLU advantage sat at 7-3 after four frames.
The first out in the top of the fifth got the right side of the infield involved as Peters picked off Tyler Watkins 1-3-6-3-4, but an RBI double from Joe Winterburn pulled LV back within a trio of runs and Landry Kiyabu took the ball. After Ben White lined an RBI single straight up the middle, Kiyabu got the final two outs on looking and swinging strike outs.
La Verne would not score again for the rest of the day and Kiyabu (4-0) remained undefeated after throwing 2.1 innings with five total Ks. Aaron Roth came in for the final 2.1 and retired all seven batters he faced, starting with a one-pitch fly ball to Justin Caña in shallow centerfield to end the seventh, and struck out one overall.
CLU added to its tally in the bottom of the sixth on a pinch-hit two-RBI single to right field from Chris Whitmer that scored Abushahla and Casciola. After Austin Kay pinch ran for Whitmer he stayed in the game and went on to launch an eighth inning RBI triple over the right fielder's head to score Crowl with the final run of the game after the first baseman led off the inning with a double.
The defense was solid for Cal Lutheran today without an error in either game. The top of the sixth inning against LV featured a pair of phenomenal plays from DellaValle at shortstop as he went deep in the hole to his right for the first out of the frame and after Kiyabu deflected the ball to his left side he got some help with a nice stretch by Crowl at first for the second out of the inning. Both Crowl and Spencer DuBois had 10 putouts and an assist with the CLU backstop laying out for a foul pop-up on the warning track behind the plate for the first out of the second inning. Casciola had three plays at the hot corner in game one and in game two Nicho Filice made a great back handed play behind the bag at third and fired across the diamond, pulling Atherton Kniseley off the bag, but a perfect swipe tag retired the runner.
While the early game had some tense moments, the Kingsmen cruised past Caltech in the nightcap with the first eight batters of the game reaching and seven scoring for a quick lead. CLU would add nine more runs over the next six innings and finished with 12 total hits, five for extra bases including a two-run homerun from Kniseley (his second round tripper in as many days) and a three-run homeruns from Whitmer, bothin the fifth inning.
Trey Saito (4-0) earned the start and the victory after 2.0 innings of scoreless pitching. The remainder of the game was staffed with Connor Sipes, Mitchell Shields, Cam Adams, Tyler Nevins and Zac Ryburn throwing an inning apiece to combine for the shutout. Sipes and Adams each retired the side in order and Adams forced a 6-4-3 double play that was turned by Kay, Griffin Mullen and Kniseley before recording the final out on a strike out looking. Ryburn made his CLU debut in fine fashion, getting a ground ball to end the game and clinch the league title outright.
Also making his first appearance in the Violet and Gold today was Andrew Gregorovic who pinch hit in the sixth.
Overall, Gunter went 4-for-7 to lead the offense while Casciola, Crowl, Kay and Whitmer each collected three hits on the day and Filice finished with a pair of doubles. Whitmer drove in seven and Gunter finished with five RBIs. Crowl came in to score four times for CLU.
Cal Lutheran (31-8, 22-6) locked up the top seed for the SCIAC Post Season Tournament that will begin on Friday afternoon, May 2. Chapman will be the other host site after placing second in the conference standings. The Panthers will face Whittier and the CLU opponent is yet to be determined, but will be established on Tuesday, April 29.
Box Score: CLU 10 LV 5
Box Score: CLU 16, CIT 0 (7)
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