WHITTIER, Calif. – When Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' Jack Witte scored on a Mackenzie Menthen sacrifice fly in the top of the 7th inning to erase a five-run deficit and take a late 6-5 lead, it would have been easy for the University of La Verne baseball team to tighten up after it dropped the second game of the series in a similar fashion earlier in the day.
But the Leopards roared back with four runs in the bottom half of the 7th and Zach Quinones slammed the door on the Stags in the final two innings to preserve a 9-6 win in the rubber match of its three-games series with CMS on Saturday at Rio Hondo College field.
Joe Winterburn singled through the right side, Ben White drew a walk and Tim Ralston was hit by a pitch to load the bases for La Verne in the bottom of the 7th. Nolan Henley promptly followed with a single up the middle to tie the game and Jared Hovsepian drove in White with a fielder's choice to give the Leopards a 7-6 lead. Then George Holland brought in Ralston with a sacrifice fly to center and Michael Reyes singled in Hovsepian to give La Verne a three-run cushion.
CMS looked to respond immediately when Samuel Woodman worked a leadoff walk to begin the 8th. However, Quinones came on in relief and immediately induced at 6-4-3 double play and got Andrew Bugard to line out to third.
"I really just tried to execute my plan, just put my pitches where they needed to be … and it worked out really well," Quinones said.
The sophomore went back out in the 9th and struck out two batters to earn the save.
"I like being up in the dugout, it's weird for me to sit down," Quinones said when asked if he knew he was going back out for the final inning.
"I wasn't really sure but I assumed I was, but one of the coaches told me I had to go sit down and take a break. That way if I were coming back for the 9th, I'd be ready to go."
Quinones has allowed just one run in 5.2 relief inning so far this season and has made an appearance in four of La Verne's last six games.
"Zach is a guy that is really going to help us on the mound this year," head coach Scott Winterburn said. "And he's been improving every week. His turn came up today and he threw his fastball to both sides of the plate, threw breaking balls for strikes and (CMS hitters) missed."
"For him to come in and execute all his pitches, it's got to give him confidence going forward."
George Hanna led off the game with a line drive shot that cleared the right field wall for his first homerun of the season.
Winterburn, Henley and Hovesepian combined to drive in five runs and each had two hits.
In the first game of the series on Friday, Hovsepian hit a two-out RBI single in the top of the 9th break a 1-1 tie and give the Leopards a 2-1 victory.
Winterburn got the Leopards on the board early with an RBI single in the 1st, but it was a pitchers' duel the rest of the way. CMS tied in the seventh on a bases-loaded groundout double play.
Kevin Knight and Brett Early combined to limit the Stags to just one run on five hits. Knight was solid in 6.2 innings of work, striking out four and scattering four hits. Early earned the win with 2.1 scoreless innings.
Hanna went 3-for-5 and Henley added two hits
In game 2, the Stags used a four-run 8th inning to beat the Leopards, 9-7.
Four Stags had multi-hit games and Bugard had three RBIs and two runs scored.
Pedro Espinoza and Ben White each had two RBIs for the Leopards.
La Verne returns to action next weekend against Pacific (Ore.). The first games starts at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 23.
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