Baseball sweeps Pomona-Pitzer, wins series

Baseball sweeps Pomona-Pitzer, wins series

CLAREMONT, Calif. — The La Verne baseball team swept Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at Alumni Field and kept pace in the SCIAC standings.

The Leopards improve to 12-6 in SCIAC play and sits tied for second place with Chapman and Occidental. The three teams sit one game back of Cal Lutheran.

Game 1: La Verne 5, Pomona-Pitzer 2

Christopher Peres went 4-for-5 at the plate and Hayden Firth pitched four scoreless relief innings to carry the La Verne baseball team to a 5-2 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the first game of a doubleheader at Alumni Field on Saturday.

In addition to a big day in the batter's box, Peres got the nod to start on the mound and pitched four solid innings, giving up two runs while striking out two.

Peres ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth inning, giving up a pair of singles and a double to start the frame, before giving way to Firth. Firth gave up a sacrifice fly to his first batter Cade Hulse but was nearly flawless for four innings to earn the win.

The Leopards offense did most of the work needed before Peres left in the fifth. La Verne opened the scoring in the top of the third as Andrew Douglas led off with an infield single before being sacrifice over the second and Jakob Thomas brought him home on a single to right field. Peres and Mark Abbate hit back-to-back singles to load the bases and Dylan Lowenstein was hit by a pitch to give the Leopards a 2-0 lead.

La Verne extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Abbate and that was all they would need.

After the Sagehens got on the board for two runs in the fifth, Brendan Campbell gave the Leopards some breathing room with an RBI single in the seventh and La Verne added another insurance run in the ninth on an RBI single by Christopher Ligot.

Cody Norman pitched a scoreless ninth to record his fifth save of the season.

Campbell finished 3-for-4 with an RBI.

Jeremey Jess (4-2) was tagged with the loss after giving up four runs in seven innings.

Game 2: La Verne 10, Pomona-Pitzer 5 (10 inn.)

La Verne pushed across five runs in the top of the 10th inning in the second game to complete the sweep.

Andrew Vrtar was hit by a pitch to start the La Verne 10th and Douglas reached on an error. Grant Thompson, who was pinch running for Vrtar, and Douglas advanced on a wild pitch and Nikko Williams came through with a double down the left field line to plate two runs. Thomas and Peres both walked to load the bases and Abbate broke it wide open with a bases-clearing double to deep center.

Firth, who came on with one out in the eighth, gave up a single and a walk to start the bottom of the 10th but sat the next three down in order to pick up his second win of the day. He struck out three in 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

Williams, Peres and Abbatte each picked up two hits for the Leopards.

Norman, who earned a save in the first game, started the second game and pitched five innings of one-run ball.

Up next

The Leopards square off against Chapman next weekend for a three-game series with potential SCIAC postseason implications.