It was a beautiful night at Poway High School on Monday, but it was not so pretty on the field, as defensive struggles and bad luck at the plate led to an 8-2 loss for Cougar baseball to the Concordia Eagles.

CSUSM is now 13-7-1 this season, while Concordia improves to 12-11.

Both starting pitchers gave very nice efforts on the night.  Cougar starter Travis McCracken battled through 7 complete innings against the tough Eagles lineup, surrendering just three runs by scattering seven hits and a walk while striking out three.

McCracken was the night's tough luck loser, however, courtesty of a great performance from Concordia starter Dan Heben.  Heben leaned on a big 12-to-6 curve ball and a fastball that he kept down in the zone to throw six shutout innings and earn the win.

Still, CSUSM had its chances.  The Cougars stranded twelve runners in the game, due to a mix of deep fly balls hit to the wrong part of the park and a some nice rally-killing defense from the Eagles.

After a defensive meltdown in the eighth pushed the lead to 6-0, the Cougars' patience at the plate led to their best chance to tie the game.  A pair of walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out, and another walk from the Concordia bullpen pushed in the Cougars' first run.  But after another run scored on a botched potential double-play ball, two straight strikeouts ended the rally. 

Then in the top of the ninth, a two-run home run from the Eagles' Hill effectively ended the game.

The Cougars will be back in action tomorrow night at Poway High again at 6 PM, facing another tough GSAC team, Vanguard University.