La Verne edges Pitzer 8-7 in key SCIAC showdown
| By Michelle Gardner Staff Writer LAVERNE - The University of La Verne baseball team knew it didn't have a lot of room for error. Not with so few games left in the regular season and three teams in contention for the SCIAC title. But the Leopards stayed in the hunt with an 8-7 win over defending champion Pomona-Pitzer Friday at Ben Hines Field. It was an eventful game with the Sagehens scoring three in the ninth to tie the game at 7 and La Verne winning it on a walkoff RBI single by freshman Eddie Kalankiewicz in the bottom of the frame. It was the 10th win in the last 11 conference games for the Leos. The win keeps La Verne (23-14, 14-4) one half-game behind Redlands (27-11, 15-4) which beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 8-5. Both teams will play a doubleheader today with La Verne at Pitzer (27-11, 13-6) and Redlands across the street at CMS. Both twinbills start at noon. "We all know the situation. We pretty much have to keep winning," La Verne coach Scott Winterburn said. "This conference is tough year-in and year-out. It just so happens we came down to the wire this year with three teams. It doesn't get better than this." La Verne took a 7-4 lead into the final inning but faltered in the ninth as the Sagehens loaded the bases with no outs on an infield single by James Kang, a solid single up the middle by Drew Hedman and a walk to Zach Mandelblatt. Mike Silva grounded out to second, scoring Kang and closing the gap to 7-5 and forcing reliever Grant Wheatley from the game. Michael Joannides then lined an offering from Jimmy Wilfong to the right side of the infield where Trevor Boucher made a spectacular diving stop and leaped to his feet in time to get the runner. But Hedman raced home bringing the visitors within one. Boucher's stop momentarily prevented Mandelblatt from scoring too but he did so when the next batter, Andrew Nino, blooped a check swing single into shallow right field to tie the game. Pitzer then got a double by Eric Thompson that advanced Nino to third. Wilfong then made the defensive play of the game to keep the go-ahead runs from scoring. Edward Pickett hit a scorching line drive that took the glove of Wilfong's hand. He scrambled for the ball a few feet away and unleashed a strike to first baseman Jon-Michael Hattabaugh that just nipped the runner and ended the uprising. Had Wilfong not knocked the ball down, both runners would have scored. "You have to give them credit because they made a couple of great plays in the last inning," Sagehens coach Frank Pericolosi said. "We hit a lot of balls hard all day. It was just one of those when none of them found a hole." La Verne retaliated quickly, starting its rally when Boucher lined a triple to deep center field over the head of Pickett for a triple. James Brunswick, who entered in relief of starter David Colvin in the seventh, walked the next two hitters intentionally to set up a force and set the stage for Kalankiewicz, who entered as a defensive replacement the previous inning. He then stroked a fastball away for a solid single through the left side over the drawn-in infield. "I was just trying to put the ball in play, execute, nice easy swing," he said. "It feels good to be able to come through in such a big game. Now we have to keep the momentum." La Verne won the game on the base paths with some daring moves paying off. Jack Mehl went first to third on a sacrifice bunt by Dimitre Mondette, then scored on a single by Scott Marcus in the sixth. It also pulled off a double steal in the fifth with Hattabaugh racing home when Jason Munoz took off for second. Meanwhile the Sagehens went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position before the ninth inning and the top four hitters in their normally potent lineup were 0-for-12 to that point. Pitzer, which was ranked as high as 15 nationally, now needs to win both games today and hope Redlands loses twice. It has lost six of its last seven games and came back to the pack after getting swept by Cal Lutheran last week. But Pericolosi said he won't be worrying too much about the other pivotal game nearby. "If we're worried about what someone else is doing we're not focused on ourselves," he said. "We need to go out and win two games tomorrow before that even matters." The other factor could be a game that La Verne has not finished with Cal Lutheran. That game, postponed from Feb. 22, was tied at 12 in the 11th inning. Redlands won the series with La Verne so it has the tiebreaker over the Leos. Athletic director Chris Ragsdale said it wouldn't be finished by Winterburn thought it would be if Redlands was a half game out and could pull even with a La Verne loss. |
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