LA VERNE, Calif. — The University of La Verne baseball team continues its fight to find solid groundbut little is going right for them at the moment.
After dropping the series opener to No. 25 Cal Lutheran at Thousand Oaks on Friday, 8-5, the Leopards lost both games of a doubleheader on Saturday at Ben Hines Field.
La Verne falls to 16-16 overall and 9-12 in SCIAC play. Cal Lutheran improves to 23-9 and 17-4.
Game 1: Cal Lutheran 4, La Verne 2
La Verne got on the board first as Christopher Peres hit a two-out single and Ben White plated him with a double to deep right center.
But the Leopards could muster only one more run the rest of the way and lost, 4-2.
Brett Early (3-4) pitched a shutout through the first four innings but the Kingsmen broke through in the top of the fifth. Davey Casciola hit a one-out double and Chad Clark singled through the right side to tie the game at 1-1.
Then with two outs and runners on first and third in the top of the sixth, Cal Lutheran successfully executed a double steal to go ahead and Max Price followed with a single to give the Kingsmen a 3-1 lead.
The Leopards answered in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI single by Daniel McDonnell but a rally was cut short by a double play and could not string together any hits the rest of the way.
Peres and White each had two hits to lead the Leopards.
Evan Peterson (4-1) pitched 7.1 innings of two-run ball to pick up the win and Nate Wehner closed the game with perfect 1.2 innings to earn his first save of the year.
Game 2: Cal Lutheran 6, La Verne 2
After the Kingsmen got out to an early lead, the Leopards tied the game in the bottom of the third with three consecutive singles and a wild pitch.
But the offense stalled, collecting just three more hits the rest of the way, and the Leopards lost, 6-2, in the nightcap.
Cal Lutheran broke the tie in the top of the fifth on run-scoring hits by Gabe Gunter and Sinjin Todd and added two more insurance runs in the ninth.
Marshall Pautch (5-2) got the win for the Kingsmen.
Nick Byrd (5-2) was charged with the loss after giving up four runs in five innings.
Up next
The Leopards are back in action on Friday at home against Chapman. First pitch is at 3 p.m.
