The University of La Verne baseball team's comeback efforts against Pomona-Pitzer fell a run short as it dropped a 5-4 decision to the Sagehens in SCIAC Pool Play action Sunday afternoon in Claremont.

Pomona-Pitzer would jump out early and put together a string of hits to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning.  La Verne would begin chipping away in the fourth after George Hanna crossed the plate on a well-executed groundball from Michael Stewart.  The momentum was short-lived as the Sagehens answered with a trio of runs to take a 5-1 lead in the fifth.

The Leopard bats would start to pick up in the top of the sixth further shrinking the deficit with two runs on three hits.  Cody Hazel would reach on an error by the first baseman and proceed to advance to third on a single from Mason Stoltenberg.  Hazel and Stoltenberg would score on singles from Josh Surdo and Jared Hovsepian to close the gap 5-3.       

La Verne aligned themselves for a comeback in the eighth inning, loading the bases with no outs on singles by Stoltenberg and Jason Moralez and Josh Surdo reaching base after being hit by a pitch.  La Verne would come within one run after Stoltenberg was walked in. 

The walk would bring up Hovsepian who would nail a line drive to first base in what seemed to be an extra-base hit, but the Sagehens' Jake Bruml would make the diving grab to prevent the Leopards from scoring.  The excitement would not end there as Nick Bergara would ground into a double play that would result in a controversial interference call at second base halting Leopard momentum and ending the inning.

The Leopard bats would be silenced in the ninth as the Sagehens held on for the victory.  Stoltenberg had the only multi-hit performance for La Verne.  Pomona-Pitzer's Erik Munzer was 5-5 at the plate with 2 RBI. 

With the loss La Verne (21-15, 15-12 SCIAC) falls out of contention for the fourth and final spot in the SCIAC tournament and will face off at Whittier in their final contest of the 2013 season Tuesday at 3:00 pm.