THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — John Frazier's complete game in game one and Kai Caranto's walk-off walk in game two lifted Cal Lutheran baseball to 5-1 and 7-6 wins in its doubleheader against No. 11 La Verne on Monday afternoon.
After losing game one last Friday, the Kingsmen (22-7, 12-6 SCIAC) took both games of the doubleheader (originally scheduled for Saturday, April 13) to win a series against the Leopards (18-8-1, 11-4 SCIAC) that had important SCIAC and national implications.
"Proud of team effort today, La Verne is an excellent program, and our guys hung in there all day," Head Coach Erik Scherer said. "JJ has been our "stopper" all year, and he was tremendous again. He held down a strong offensive team. Great job by our offense scratching for runs in first few innings against a very good opposing pitcher. Game two was really about getting contributions from players coming off the bench in the 8th/9th innings. Willius and Bugarin on the mound, and Zitko and Farr at the plate. Those 4 stayed ready all day. Great to see them contribute."
GAME ONE: Kingsmen 5, Leopards 1
Frazier's third complete game is tied for most in SCIAC and he is second in innings pitched with 65.1. He now leads the SCIAC with a conference-low 1.65 ERA.
Blake Wink gave the Kingsmen a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a solo shot over the center field wall, his fourth home run of the season. In the second, Ethan Dungo hit a two-out single to keep the inning going and Griffin Ziko doubled off the right-center field wall to score him to make it 2-0. Troy Anderson and Kai Caranto hit back-to-back RBI singles to stretch the Kingsmen lead to 4-0 after three.
Frazier allowed his first hit of the game in the fourth after three near-perfect innings and put up zeros through his first seven innings of work, including an inning-ending double play in the sixth and his lone pair of strikeouts coming in the seventh. The Leopards threatened after scoring their first and only run in the eighth inning, but Frazier stranded runners on first and third to get out of the inning and posted a one-two-three ninth to secure the win in game one of the doubleheader.
GAME TWO: Kingsmen 7, Leopards 6
After the Leopards put up four runs in the top of the seventh inning to turn a tie game into a 6-2 lead, the Kingsmen put up five runs in the last two innings of the game to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and win the series.
Frank Willius entered the game out of the bullpen with one out in the top of the eighth inning and got Kingsmen out of a jam and back into the dugout, where they would score three runs in the bottom half of the eighth to cut the deficit to one run. Zitko and Ryan Farr provided a spark off the bench, as they started the inning off with back-to-back pinch-hit singles. Lucas Danielewicz walked to load the bases and Wink recorded his second hit of the game and fourth of the day to score two runs, making it 6-4. The Kingsmen scored once more after Anderson popped up to the second baseman who made an errant throw to first trying to double-up the runner, allowing Danielewicz to come home.
Willius recorded the first two outs of the ninth, but the Leopards loaded the bases. The Kingsmen called on Milan Bugarin (W) to keep them within one, and he came up huge, getting a ground ball out that sent the Kingsmen dugout and the crowd into a frenzy.
The Kingsmen entered the bottom of the ninth with momentum on their side and it only grew when Dungo, the tying run, led off the inning with a walk. Zitko and Farr were both hit by pitches to load the bases, putting the tying run at third and the winning run at second. Then, Danielewicz sent a fly ball into left field deep enough to score the tying run via a sacrifice fly to tie the game back up at 6-6. Wink was intentionally walked to load the bases, and with nowhere to put another runner, Caranto drew a walk on four pitches to walk it off and complete the comeback.
THE NUMBERS
- Frazier (7-1): 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R (0 earned), 2 BB, 2 K
- Josh Kim: 6.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R (3 earned), BB, K
- Wink: 4-6, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, SB
- Danielewicz: 3-7, 2 R, RBI, BB
- Dungo: 2-7, 3B, 3 R, BB
- Zitko: 2-4, 2B, R, HBP
UP NEXT
The Kingsmen will play Bethesda in a non-conference matchup tomorrow, April 16 at 3 p.m. their series against No. 16 Pomona Pitzer this weekend.
