LA VERNE, Calif. — Justin Wright was 3-for-4 with three RBI, Christopher Peres was solid on the mound once again and the La Verne baseball team beat Schreiner 6-1 in the first gave of a doubleheader on Sunday at Ben Hines Field.
Peres (3-0) scattered three hits and struck out four in six innings while not allowing an earned run to pick up the win. He contributed with the bat as well, driving in the game's opening run in the bottom of the first inning.
The Leopards put together 12 hits as a team and put pressure on the Mountaineers all game, placing a runner on base every inning.
Wright singled in Dylan Lowenstein in the third inning and brought home Jakob Thomas in the fifth to give the Leopards a 4-0 lead.
Schreiner got on the board in the seventh inning after the first two batters of the inning reached on an error and Josh Gilliam followed with a single through the left side. Ryan Ragle then laid down a sacrifice bunt to put two runners in scoring position. But Sean Holt struck out the next batter before allowing a walk and Hayden Firth fanned Hudson Valenti to get out of the inning.
Firth went onto toss two more scoreless innings to pick up his first save of the season.
Aaron Fong and Anthony Gonzalez each had a pair of hits for La Verne.
Ernest Ortiz led the Mountaineers with three hits.
Schreiner got out to a 5-0 lead in the second game but the Leopards scored at least one run in each of the final six innings to claim a 16-7 win.
Dylan Alhanati smacked a two-run triple in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game at 6-6 and came home on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Douglas to give the Leopards a 7-6 lead.
The Leopards added a run in the next inning as Nicholas Michaels tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Peres to take an 8-6 lead. The Mountaineers got one back in the top of the seventh on a La Verne error but the Leopards responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and exploded for five runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the game away.
Alhanati, Douglas and Nikko Williams each recorded a pair of hits and seven other Leopards got a base hit.
La Verne's bullpen was excellent. Brennan Morales (1-0) picked up his first collegiate win after going 1.2 innings and recording a strikeout. Cody Norman fanned three in two relief innings and Nico Gonzalez pitched a perfect ninth for the Leopards.
The Leopards are back in action on Tuesday against Ithaca.
POSTGAME QUOTES
From Head Coach Scott Winterburn
On winning two different types of games: "I'm not sure what it says, to be honest. It's too different of games to just put any kind of feeling associated with it. It's baseball. I'm glad we came out on the winning side of it. We did enough things win [the second game] but we know that we can play a lot better. Our focus is on looking at the ways we can get better and get ready for the next game."
On the bullpen: "Those kids are getting better every day and they're practicing hard. I thought today was an opportunity for them to come out and pitch. They didn't have to come in late when things are happening fast. Those kids knew they were coming in early and I thought it was nice for them to be able to prepare mentally and be able to come in and execute. Those kids are getting better every day and I can't wait to keep coaching them."
On what he's looking to gain from a upcoming nonconference games: "We just want our players to get better at playing within the framework our team and look at it as an opportunity to play another game to do the things we do. And hopefully we can get better at things we do over the course of these next few games."
