THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - After a 27-3 rout over Drew (N.J.) in their first meeting on Sunday, the No. 5 Cal Lutheran baseball team found a different way to win on Monday with a come from behind 8-7 win over the Rangers at Ullman Stadium.
CLU fell behind early after Drew came out with something to prove after a rough outing in yesterday's game. The Rangers capitalized on early control issues from the Kingsmen pitchers and took a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning.
CLU wasted no time with a response as they quickly loaded the bases for Ramsey Abushahla who tripled to center field to put the Kingsmen on top 3-2 at the end of the first.
Following the see-saw theme, the Rangers regained the lead after putting together five hits and four runs in the second to go up 6-3.
The Kingsmen continued to chip away at the lead in large part due to timely hitting from Justin Caña and stellar pitching from Landry Kiyabu. Caña drove home Austin Kay twice; once with a double in the second inning and another on an RBI groundout to shortstop in the sixth to cut the Drew lead to 7-5.
Kiyabu entered the game in the top of the seventh and completely shut down the Ranger offense. The junior reliever pitched the final five innings without allowing a run or a walk and struck out five. Kiyabu gave up just one hit, but the runner was thrown out by Abushahla trying to reach second, so he faced the minimum of 15 batters in his five innings.
Still trailing 7-5 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Collin Crowl started things off with a single to center field. Kay drew a walk and Chris Whitmer executed a textbook sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position. Caña came up and stroked a single up the middle to score two and tie the game 7-7.
After coming up empty in the ninth and tenth innings, Anthony Schirtz led off the eleventh inning with a walk. Jeff Rebello came in to pinch run and moved to second base after a walk to Gabe Gunter. Following a sacrifice bunt from Abushahla, Nick Cohan lined one deep enough to center to score Rebello and win the game 8-7.
Caña finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs and Crowl went 2-for-5 with a run. Kay scored three times in the game and Abushahla finished with three RBIs.
Cal Lutheran (13-1) will now travel to Arizona for the Tucson Invitational where they will play four games in four days, beginning this Thursday, Mar. 12 against Concordia (Wis.) at 3:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 8, DU 7 (11)
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