WHITTIER, Calif. – Phil Schick turned in his best game of the season, Brett Early was perfect in relief and the University of La Verne baseball team beat Pomona-Pitzer, 6-1, in the first game of a three-game set on Friday at Rio Hondo College field.
Schick gave up a homerun to Tanner Nishioka on the very first pitch of the game but shut out the Sagehens the rest of the way.
"[The homerun] was my fault," La Verne head coach Scott Winterburn said. "I called a fastball in and he crushed it."
Schick scattered five hits and struck out six in seven strong innings. In his final six innings, the senior limited the Sagehens to just three hits.
"The way Phil responded on the next batter and the rest of the game was vintage Phil," Winterburn said. "What you saw today is what Phil is capable of. He's been doing it for us for at least two and a half years so I'm not surprised at all that he threw the ball as well as he did."
Although Pomona-Pitzer had at least one runner on in six of Schick's seven innings, Schick managed to find a way out of trouble each time and never let two runners on in a row until the eighth when Nishioka reached on an error and Coleman Lukas drew a walk to lead off the inning.
"I just focused on letting the defense work for me," Schick said when asked how he managed to stay composed. "You have to remember that there are eight other guys standing behind me. We're all pulling on the same rope so just throw my pitches where they belong and let the team work."
Brett Early came on in the eighth after the first two batters reached and slammed the door on the Sagehens. He immediately struck out Simon Rosenbaum and induced E.J. Lopez into an inning-ending double play.
Early returned to the mound in the 9th and struck out two more to earn his second save of the season.
La Verne scored all the runs it would need in the first inning. Nolan Henley led off the inning with a walk, stole second with two outs and came around to score on a throwing error by Nishioka. Pedro Espinoza then knocked in Joe Winterburn, who had reached on the error, to give the Leopards a 2-1 lead.
The Leopards added two more in the 2nd in a similar fashion. Mark Jebbia walked and Josh Surdo singled to lead off the inning, and Jebbia scored on an error on a sacrifice attempt. Jared Hovsepian singled later in the inning to drive in Surdo.
The Leopards tacked one more in the 3rd when Surdo drove in Ben White with a single.
Surdo had a game-high three hits to go along with an RBI and a run scored.
Hovsepian and Espinoza each added two hits.
Pomona-Pitzer starter Bruml struck out 10 in five innings, but was tagged with the loss.
The Leopards return to action tomorrow when they travel to Claremont for a doubleheader against the Sagehens. The first game starts at 11:00 a.m.
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