THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran baseball team cruised to a pair of victories as they continued Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Round Robin play on Sunday afternoon at Ullman Stadium. The Kingsmen began the day with a 13-3 win over Chapman followed by a 13-1 rout of Caltech, with both games shortened via mercy rule.
The CLU offense was firing on all cylinders as they rattled off a total of 28 hits and 26 runs while extending their winning streak to eight games.
In game one, the Panthers struggled with control on the mound and issued nine walks and hit a total of five Kingsmen batters.
CLU scored its first run after Davey Casciola drew a bases loaded walk to bring in Spencer DuBois in the first inning, but the brunt of the damage was done later in the game.
The Violet and Gold strung together three straight two-run innings from the fifth to the seventh and capped it off with five runs in the eighth to end the game.
Kyle Sanchez led the way at the plate going 3-for-6 with a run and an RBI while Max Price, Nick Cohan and Sinjin Todd each added two hits. Scott Peters (6-2) earned the victory on the mound after scattering eight hits on three runs and striking out five.
In the second game of the day against Caltech, Nate Wehner made his first career start on the mound and earned his first victory along with it. The freshman righty from Bellevue, Wash. went four strong innings allowing just one run and one hit while striking out three.
Offensively, the Kingsmen firepower carried over from game one as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead after the first inning. After Todd led off the game with a walk, Chris Whitmer and Sanchez came up with back-to-back singles before Ramsey Abushahla provided the fireworks with a two-run homerun to deep left center field. Price provided an RBI double in the frame and Whitmer came through with a sacrifice fly in his second at-bat of the inning.
Collin Crowl drove in Gabe Gunter on an RBI double to add another run in the fourth while Todd and Anthony Schirtz combined for RBI hits in the fifth to give CLU a 10-1 lead.
Peters made his first career at-bat for the Kingsmen in the bottom of the sixth and drove a ball to the second basemen who mishandled it for an error. Trey Saito scored from third on the play after pinch-running for Jeff Rebello, who tripled to right center earlier in the inning. Schirtz added a sac fly later in the inning and Brett Green capped off the scoring with an RBI double down the right field line.
Tyler Nevins, Connor Sipes and Justin Garcia each pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the Kingsmen.
Todd finished the game 3-for-3 with three runs, to finish the day with a total of five hits, and Crowl and Price added two hits. Seven other Kingsmen added a single hit in the game.
Cal Lutheran (28-10, 20-7 SCIAC) will travel to Occidental tomorrow, Apr. 26 to resume their postponed game from Saturday, and conclude the regular season.
Box Score: CLU 13, CU 3 (8)
Box Score: CLU 13, CIT 1 (7)
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