THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — John Frazier continued his dominance in his SCIAC-leading fifth complete game of the season and
Josh Quinn delivered a walk-off single to take down Chapman and clinch a SCIAC playoff berth for the fourth straight season on Saturday afternoon.
The Kingsmen (28-12, 15-9 SCIAC) entered the series one game ahead of the Panthers (22-18, 13-11 SCIAC) for the fourth seed in the SCIAC, as the winner of the three-game set would eliminate the loser. Before the game, the Kingsmen celebrated Senior Day, honoring their two graduates
Gordon Richardson and
Blake Wink.
GAME ONE: Kingsmen 3, Panthers 2
Frazier (W) was stellar as he set a new career-high in strikeouts with 10, including nine K's through his first six innings of work while only allowing one baserunner. He finished the season fourth in ERA at 2.42 and second in innings pitched with 89.2.
After being held off the scoreboard for the first eight innings of the contest, the Panthers rallied back in the ninth with their season on the line, scoring two runs on three hits to tie the contest up at 2-2.
In the bottom of the ninth,
Troy Anderson worked a leadoff walk to get the winning run aboard.
Kaden Brennan entered as a pinch runner,
Sebastian Smith laid down a sacrifice bunt to get him into scoring position, and Quinn came up huge, driving a ball through the infield to score Brennan and walk off into the SCIAC playoffs.
Quinn knocked in the game's first run back in the second inning, driving in Smith with an RBI triple. While Frazier fanned Panther hitters, the Kingsmen scored another run in the eighth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by Wink to score
Carlos Vega to get the Kingsmen a second run.
THE NUMBERS
- Frazier (9-2): 9.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
- Quinn: 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI
- Vega: 2-3, R
-
Kai Caranto: 1-3, 2B
GAME TWO: Kingsmen 5, Panthers 10
The two teams battled in a back-and-forth game through the first six innings before the Panthers scored six runs in the top of the eighth inning to pull away.
In the first inning, the Kingsmen jumped out to a 2-0 lead after
Alec Garcia scored on a sacrifice fly by
Kai Caranto and
Ryan Farr scored on an RBI groundout from
Lucas Danielewicz. The Panthers scored four runs to take a 4-3 lead, but two doubles from Anderson and Quinn in the fifth tied the game up at 4-4, and Farr's RBI double to drive in
Ethan Dungo gave the Kingsmen a 5-4 lead in the sixth. The Panthers' six spot in the eighth would be the deciding factor in the final game of the regular season.
THE NUMBERS
- Joshua Kim: 4.1 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, BB, K
-
Colten Hanson: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
- Farr: 2-5, 2B, R, RBI
- Danielewicz: 1-4, 2B, RBI
- Anderson: 1-4, 2B, R
- Quinn: 1-3, 2B, RBI
UP NEXT
The Kingsmen look to three-peat as SCIAC Tournament champions when they take on No. 1 seeded La Verne in the double-elimination tournament on Friday, May 10, time TBD.