Baseball drops SCIAC Postseason opener to No. 22 Cal Lutheran, 6-2

Baseball drops SCIAC Postseason opener to No. 22 Cal Lutheran, 6-2

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The La Verne baseball team dropped a 6-2 decision to No. 22 Cal Lutheran to open the 2017 SCIAC Postseason Tournament on Friday at Ullman Stadium.

With the loss, La Verne faces an elimination game against Chapman tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.

The Leopards couldn't solve Cal Lutheran starter Marshall Pautsch. Pautsch tossed seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts while scattering four hits and two walks.

The Kingsmen hit three doubles in a row with two outs in the first inning to grab a 2-0 lead and never looked back. Gabe Gunter started the rally with a double down the left line and Jimmy Jauregui and Weston Clark follwed with back-to-back two-baggers to deep right.

Cal Lutheran added run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Jauregui and extended the lead to 4-0 on an RBI single by Sinjin Todd in the sixth inning.

Jakob Thomas put the Leopards on the board with a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning and cut the deficit to 4-1 but the Kingsmen responded with two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to keep the Leopards at bay.

Nicholas Michaels led off the top of the ninth with a single and a La Verne loaded the bases with two outs. Michaels then scored on a passed to make it 6-2 but that was all the Leopards would manage.

Michaels and Brendan Campbell each had two hits for La Verne.

Jauregui finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs for Cal Lutheran.