THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Beneath gray, cloudy skies inside of Ullman Stadium, the Cal Lutheran and Caltech baseball teams battled through spurts of rain for two inning-shortened games with the Kingsmen stealing both, 15-3 and 15-5 in seven and eight innings, respectively, on George "Sparky" Anderson Field in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action.
On a day when the Kingsmen combined for 35 hits, including 16 for extra bases, and 30 total runs, Ramsey Abushahla was 5-for-5 with three RBIs and a pair of runs and Davey Casciola added a five-hit day as well with four doubles, four RBIs and four runs. Nick Cohan, Gabe Gunter and Austin Kay all homered with Kay's, an inside the parker, representing the first of his career.
Defensively, CLU committed just one error today and turned a pair of double plays. Weston Clark finished with 13 putouts, Chad Clark had 10 touches for four putouts and six assists and Eddie Villegas contributed seven putouts and an assist.
Caltech stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the first frame on four consecutive hits and although CLU responded with two in the bottom of the first, the Kingsmen trailed 3-2 until the bottom of the fifth when the home team burst out for five runs.
Leadoff man Justin Caña stroked a triple to the warning track in centerfield and he came in to score the tying run on a Casciola double. After Abushahla legged out an infield single a balk allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate. A W. Clark single and CIT error coupled with a Jimmy Jauregui sacrifice fly led to another CLU run and Gabe Gunter connected for a solo homerun, giving the Violet and Gold a four-run advantage that Cal Lutheran would maintain to the final out.
An inning later, the Kingsmen added to the tally with eight more runs, on five hits, to force the game to an early end. In the sixth, Gunter added a two-RBI triple to his line before Brad Fullerton pinch ran and C. Clarkstroked a two-RBI double to left for the final two runs of the game.
Evan Peterson (1-0) earned his first win of the season, throwing 6.0 innings, striking out a pair and settling down after the first frame. Ryan Bill tossed the final frame and notched two strike outs.
Game two was another early battle. CLU took a quick 1-0 lead on an Abushahla sac fly that scored Sinjin Todd, but Caltech responded with a two-run homerun from Garrett Levi to give the Beavers another lead. CLU knotted things at 2-2 in the bottom of the second and took a lead in the bottom of the third on another Abushahla RBI double. In the fourth frame, the Kingsmen scored a trio of times. Cohandrew a leadoff walk and came around to score on anVillegasdouble down the line. Kaynotched his first career homerun with an inside the park, two-run knock. The Kingsmen tallied two more in the fifth on a two-run homerun by Cohan and Caltech tacked on three more in the top of the sixth, though CLU plated another pair in the bottom. The Violet and Gold nearly put the game in the books in the bottom of seventh with four runs on five hits including a triple by C. Clark and a double from Max Weinstein. The final run of the day came in the bottom of the eighth when
Marshall Pautsch (2-1) got the win after working 5.0 innings, allowing just two hits and two runs while striking out five. Mitchell Shields and Nate Wehner both threw scoreless innings in the second game.
Cal Lutheran (7-4, 5-1 SCIAC) returns to George "Sparky" Anderson Field inside of Ullman Stadium on Monday for a single non-conference game against Webster (Mo.) with first pitch scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 15, CIT 3 (7 innings)
Box Score: CLU 15, CIT 5 (8 innings)
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