WHITTIER, Calif. — After losing the first two games of the series, Cal Lutheran baseball slugged 13 runs on 14 hits, and starting pitcher Milan Bugarin struck out seven to mercy-rule Whittier 13-2 in seven innings on Monday afternoon. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Poets tacked on two runs off of Bugarin in the bottom of the first, but he would hold them scoreless the rest of his 5.0-inning outing. He had five of his seven K's in just two innings of work, with his fifth strikeout emphatically ending a bases-loaded chance for the Poets. 

The Kingsmen took the lead in the top of the third inning when Lucas Danielewicz and Troy Anderson scored on a Sebastian Smith single to make it 3-2. With two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Carlos Vega roped a bases-clearing to left-center to break the game open and push the Kingsmen lead to 6-2. 

They scored another run in the sixth before exploding for seven more runs in the seventh, capped off with a three-run homer by Anderson, his second long-ball in the last three games. 

THE NUMBERS
- Bugarin (W): 5.0 IP, five hits, three walks, two earned runs, seven K's
- Michael Smith: 1.0 IP, no hits, no walks, no runs, one K
- Joshua Kim: 1.0 IP, no hits, no walks, no runs, one K
- Anderson: 2-4, HR, two runs, three RBIs, BB
- Smith: 3-4, two runs, two RBIs, HBP
- Danielewicz: 2-4, two runs, two RBI, BB (nine-game hit streak)
- Caranto: 2-5, two runs, RBI

UP NEXT 
The Kingsmen will start a three-game series against the No. 16-ranked Division III team in the nation Cortland on Friday, March 8 at 2 p.m.