LA VERNE, CA — The University of La Verne baseball team unleashed 28 hits and scored 25 runs on their way to defeating the Redlands Bulldogs in a pair of games on Saturday.

Season Impact

With the wins, the Leopards move into third place in the SCIAC with a 4-5 overall and 4-5 conference record. Redlands goes to 5-9 overall and 5-7 in the SCIAC to finish fourth in the conference regular season standings.

SCIAC Tournament

The Leopards will enter the SCIAC Postseason Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will travel to No. 2 Cal Lutheran on Friday for the opening round.

Game One: La Verne 14, Redlands 8

The Leopards jumped out to a 4-0 first inning lead and held off a late comeback attempt by Redlands to win the opening game of the doubleheader. La Verne finished the game with 19 hits with three different Leopards totaling three hits apiece. 

Tanner Siffert, Cameron Slessor, and Aaron Fong each recorded a trio of hits.

Siffert had an incredible game for the Leopards finishing with a home run, two doubles, four RBIs, and a run. Siffert added the finishing touches in the win when he unloaded the first homer of his career, a three-run shot over the right field fence to put the Leopards up 14-7. The utility player got the Leopards on the board in the first inning off a sacrifice fly the brought in Anthony Salcedo.

Not to be outdone, Slessor added a banner game of his own. The third basemen finished with three RBIs, three runs, and hit a pair of triples in the game including one in the sixth that sent Patrick Perez and Adam Santa Cruz to the plate.

Aaron Fong got the Leopards offense rolling early. The senior singled up the middle in the first plating a pair of runners to cap off a four-run inning. Brandon Shiota extended La Verne's lead in the eighth when he singled in a pair of runners to make the score 11-7. Shiota finished the game with two hits, two walks, and two runs.

Santa Cruz finished 2-2 at the plate with an RBI and a walk. Anthony Salcedo scored twice and added one hit and one walk, and Drew Reddick hit twice, scored once, and walked once.

After the Leopards took the opening 4-0 lead, the Bulldogs rallied back to cut La Verne's lead to 5-4 heading into the sixth. The Leopards responded with three runs in the sixth off the bats of Slessor and Fong but Redlands' Max Clark cut the lead to just one when he hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh.

La Verne put the game away for good in the eighth when they scored six runs off three hits and four walks to go ahead by seven.

Gerald Terry picked up the win, going five innings with six strikeouts while giving up just two earned runs in his start. Tyler Lawson stepped onto the mound in the ninth and struck out three.

Game Two: La Verne 11, Redlands 7

The Leopards used another six-run inning to pull away and held off a late-game rally by the Bulldogs to win the series-deciding game.

John Bike led the Leopards in the final game totaling three RBIs, off two hits. Bike got the Leopards going early when he tripled in Santa Cruz in the first to give his squad the opening 1-0 lead.

Santa Cruz was dependable as usual knocking in a pair of rungs off two hits. The senior catcher extended La Verne's lead to 4-0 with a ground out RBI in the third and put La Verne up by seven in the sixth with a single through the left side that scored designated hitter Dylan SanNicolas. SanNicolas finished the game with two hits, two runs, and an RBI.

Drew Reddick started a six-run rally in the sixth with a triple to left center that brought in Fong and Slessor.

Slessor finished with one RBI, two runs, and one stolen base. Fong and Siffert finished with one RBI and one run. Salcedo scored once, hit once, and stole a base.

Jaylon Fong earned the win giving up just two earned runs with one strikeout in five innings of work. Ben Aguilera pitched the final four innings to pick up the save.