Baseball Falls in Tournament Opener, Moves to Elimination Game

THOUSAND OAKS, CA — The University of La Verne baseball team took the opening 1-0 lead in the first inning but couldn't hold off big rallies by Cal Lutheran, falling to the Kingsmen 12-3 in the opening round of the SCIAC Baseball Postseason Tournament.

The No. 3 seed Leopards move on to the elimination game at 10 a.m. tomorrow against No. 4 seed Redlands at W.O. Hart Park in Orange, CA. The Bulldogs fell to top-seeded Chapman 7-6 in 10 innings on Friday. The winner of the game will play at 6 p.m. against the loser of the matchup between Chapman and Redlands at 6 p.m. The Panthers and Redlands faceoff at 2 p.m.

All remaining games will be hosted by Chapman at Hart Park.

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Tanner Siffert gave the Leopards the early lead off a groundout RBI in the first and drove in another run in the seventh when he singled in Matthew Dodd. Brandon Shiota added an RBI of his own in the seventh.

Catcher Adam Santa Cruz and shortstop Anthony Salcedo each finished with a pair of hits.

After taking the early lead, the Kingsmen responded in the second capitalizing on a pair of La Verne errors to take a 3-1 lead. Cal Lutheran rallied for four runs in the fifth and three in the seventh on their way to the win.

The Leopards move to 4-6 overall this year and Cal Lutheran improves to 8-10.