GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - The first road trip of the season proved to be a successful one for the Cal Lutheran baseball team, as the Kingsmen picked up their first win of the year with a 7-0 victory against Hendrix (Ark.) and finished 2-1 overall on the trip.
CLU def. HC 7-0
On Friday night at Air Hogs Stadium, Trey Saito pitched a gem to start the trip on a high note. The junior righty tossed seven shutout innings allowing just three hits and striking out six. Evan Peterson struck out the side in relief in the eighth inning, and Landry Kiyabu closed the door in the ninth with two more.
Offensively, seven different Kingsmen had multi-hit games led by Ramsey Abushahla who finished 2-for-3 with two doubles, three runs scored and two walks. Nick Cohan led the team with two RBI's and drove in Abushahla in the second inning to give CLU a 1-0 lead.
The score remained 1-0 until the seventh when Justin Caña and Jimmy Jauregui provided RBI singles and the Violet and Gold tacked on two more in the eighth and ninth innings to secure the win.
UTD def. CLU 14-8
On Saturday afternoon, the Kingsmen fell behind early and could not make up the deficit in a 14-8 loss to University of Texas-Dallas. The Comets burst out of the gate with three runs in the first, and after CLU tied it up 3-3 in the second, UTD put up seven runs in the bottom of the second to take a 10-3 lead.
The Kingsmen added two runs in the seventh and three in the ninth to narrow the lead but simply ran out of time. Freshman Weston Clark led the Kingsmen at the plate going 2-for-5 and Davey Casciola finished 1-for-3 with two walks.
CLU def. SRSU 14-2
The Kingsmen responded to their Saturday loss with a 14-2 win on Sunday morning against Sul Ross State. CLU jumped out to 5-0 lead behind a big first inning that saw hits from Casciola, Abushahla, Chad Clark, Gabe Gunter and Saito.
In the sixth inning, Abushahla tripled home Casciola to widen the lead and the Kingsmen put together another five run inning in the seventh. CLU capitalized on two early errors to bring in two runs, which was then followed by an RBI double from Saito and an RBI triple from Sinjin Todd. Casciola continued the damage with an RBI single to bring in Todd.
Casciola led the Kingsmen at the plate with a 4-for-5 day with three RBI's and three runs scored. Abushahla and Saito each added three hits, while Jeff Rebello scored three runs along with Casciola. Todd and Gunter also finished with multi-hit games.
On the mound, Nate Wehner earned the win after going 5.2 innings and allowing just four hits and two earned runs with one strikeout. Peterson added two strikeouts in 1.1 innings of relief work while Weinstein and Kiyabu also made appearances.
Cal Lutheran (2-3) will return home where they will begin Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action against Chapman on Friday, Feb. 26 at 2:30 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 7, HC 0
Box Score: UTD 14, CLU 8
Box Score: CLU 14, SRSU 2
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