Box Score SAN DIEGO, Calif. – James Dykstra delivered a complete game and escaped a bases-loaded jam by striking out the final batter in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Cal State San Marcos baseball team to a 3-1 victory over Point Loma Nazarene in the first game of the teams' three-game set on Friday afternoon at Carroll B. Land Stadium.

Leading 3-0 heading into the seventh inning, Dykstra surrendered his first homerun of the season when Bryan Burkhead took him deep to cut the Sea Lions' (12-13) deficit to two. PLNU brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth, but Dykstra forced Mark Marcoux into a groundout at first to get out of the inning.

Then, things got interesting in PLNU's final at-bat. Tyler Nordgren delivered a two-out single to put runners on first and second before Andy Littlefield notched another base-hit to right to load the bases. With the winning run aboard, Dykstra honed in to sit down Kyle Desimone with his eighth strikeout of the day.

Dykstra gave up seven hits in his third complete game of the season, improving to 7-0 while helping the Cougars move to 20-2 on the season.

The Cougars (20-2) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning on RBI singles from Kyle Secciani and Kenny Belzer. Secciani then made it 3-0 with an RBI off a fielder's choice with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.

Secciani followed with a huge play from center field in the bottom of the fourth, gunning down Marcus Heisner at the plate to keep the Sea Lions off the board.

CSUSM first baseman Brandon Bentson went 2-for-4 while Mike Guadagnini went 1-for-3 with a double and a run.  

PLNU and CSUSM will wrap up their series with a doubleheader at noon on Saturday at CSUSM Baseball Field.