THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Today at George "Sparky" Anderson Field inside of Ullman Stadium, the first day of the Third Annual Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Baseball Tournament got underway with La Verne upsetting Cal Lutheran 12-3, issuing the host squad their first loss in this event.
At the second first round site, host Redlands defeated Pomona-Pitzer 10-4 despite each team notching just eight hits. Four PP errors hurt the Sagehens as UR put up a five-spot in the first inning and never looked back. John Hancock and Joey Warner had two hits apiece for the Bulldogs and combined for four RBIs while both Hancock and Mitch Samson crossed the plate three times. Warner also drove in three and Hancock and Mark Tumlins both drew two walks. For Pomona-Pitzer, EJ Lopez and Kevin Brice each collected two hits and Lopez drove in two of the four runs with Jake Bruml hitting home a pair of times. Michael Collins (7-3) earned the win after working 5.0 innings and John White got the save with 4.0 scoreless innings of work for his first of the season. David Gerics (4-3) was tagged with the loss after allowing five runs on five hits and seven walks over 6.0 innings.
At No. 17 Cal Lutheran, an accident on the freeway that delayed the arrival of La Verne and pushed the start time back did not deter the Leopards who used a seven run sixth inning to break the game open and cruise to the victory in a rematch of last year's first game of the tournament.
After a scoreless first frame, the Kingsmen put up the first crooked number of the day with two runs in the second. Three consecutive hits from Davey Casciola, Collin Crowl and Max Price, who bunted for a base hit, were followed by an RBI walk from Nico Filice. Although the Leos turned a 4-6-3 double play, CLU was able to add a second run. The inning ended when second baseman Andrew Douglas dove deep in the hole, spun on the ground and threw to pitcher Brett Early covering first to get the runner by a step.
Scott Peters went back on the bump with an advantage and got the first batter of the third inning looking and retired the final two of the inning on swinging strikes. Early then returned to the hill to get a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half and it was a quiet in the fourth as well.
In the top of the fifth, La Verne took its first lead of the day by sending eight men to the plate. Nolan Henley doubled to the right centerfield gap to start a string of four hits, two walks and a CLU error to push across three runs. Henley, Woody Reyes and Ben White all came in to score, giving the Leopards a 3-2 advantage. After diving for a ball off the bat of White, and nearly making a phenomenal catch on it, Ramsey Abushahla recovered to throw a laser to Price at second to still record an out. The inning then ended with a catch on the warning track by Abushahla.
The Leopards opened up the game in the sixth with seven runs. Back-to-back hits knocked Peters from the mound. LV then tagged Evan Peterson for three runs on two hits, from Tyler Watkins and Douglas, which were sandwiched by a pair of walks. La Verne continued to produce against Mitchell Shields with a two-RBI single off the bat of Jakob Thomas and a sacrifice fly by Mark Jebbia. A throwing error allowed the final run of the frame to cross the plate.
The lead increased to 12-2 in the top of the eight, though CLU got one run back in the bottom of the inning on a Casciola first pitch homerun over the right field wall.
Early (8-2) went the distance, scattering nine hits and walking three while allowing just three runs and striking out four. The LV offense was paced by Watkins, White and Jared Hovsepian who each finished with three-hit days. They each had an RBI and combined for five runs. Jebbia and Thomas drove in a pair apiece and Henley, Thomas and Reyes each crossed the plate two times.
Peters (6-3) was tagged with the loss after 5.0 innings in which he allowed nine runs, three walks and five runs though he did strike out six. Eight of the nine CLU hits came from four players with Abushahla, Casciola, Crowl and Justin Caña each notching two with Casciola also representing two of the three CLU runs.
For the remainder of the weekend the tournament will shift to Cal Lutheran. A trio of games is on tap for Saturday, May 2, with Cal Lutheran (28-11) playing Pomona-Pitzer (28-12) in game three at 8:30 a.m. inside of Ullman Stadium. The two victorious squads from today, La Verne (22-17) and Redlands (28-12), will face off at 11:30 a.m. in the fourth game and the final game of the afternoon will feature the game three winner against the game four loser at 2:30 p.m. with the game three loser being eliminated. A complete schedule is below.
SCIAC Post Season Tournament Schedule:
Game 1: La Verne def. Cal Lutheran 12-3
Game 2: Redlands def. Pomona-Pitzer 10-4
Game 3: Cal Lutheran vs. Pomona-Pitzer - Saturday, May 2 - 8:30 a.m.
Game 4: La Verne vs. Redlands - Saturday, May 2 - 11:30 a.m.
Game 5: Winner G3 vs. Loser G4 - Saturday, May 2 - 3:00 p.m.
Game 6: Winner G3 vs. Winner G5 - Sunday, May 3 - 11:00 a.m.
Game 7: Winner G6 vs. Loser G6 - Sunday, May 3 - 2:30 p.m. (if necessary)
Tournament Central: 2015 SCIAC Postseason Baseball Tournament
SCIAC Championships Twitter: https://twitter.com/2015SCIACchamps
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clusports
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
