Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The 11th-ranked Cal State San Marcos baseball team ended a four-game losing streak with a pair of 10-run victories over La Sierra in Association of Independent Institutions play on Friday afternoon at CSUSM Baseball Field. The Cougars topped the Golden Eagles 11-1 in game one before closing the day with a 13-3 seven-inning victory.
CSUSM (24-6, 7-1 A.I.I.) racked up 14 hits in each contest, combining for eight extra-base hits and a .406 team batting average.
Freshman Brandon Bentson went 4-for-7 with three RBI over the two games while Tyler Bernard was 4-for-8 with a pair of doubles. Adam Tapia was 3-for-5 with three RBI.
The Golden Eagles dropped to 2-26 overall and 1-7 in conference play.
Game One
The Cougars scored five runs in their first at-bat to give themselves a solid cushion to work with in their eventual 11-1 victory.
Kody Sepulveda was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and Bernard went 3-for-4. James Dykstra (8-1) pitched five innings of one-hit ball, striking out five while facing the minimum number of batters.
Marcus Meraz led off the bottom of the first with a double off the top of the left-field wall before moving to third on Bernard's single to center. Bentson then reached on a fielder's choice and Meraz scored when Bernard beat the shortstop's throw to second base.
Sepulveda followed with a single to center to bring in Bernard and make it 2-0. Kyle Kuck notched an RBI single before John Swilley scored on a fielder's choice by Tapia.
CSUSM scored its final run of the inning when Tapia attempted to steal second. Tapia got in a run down and was eventually tagged out, but Kuck scurried home from third before the out occurred for the Cougars' fifth run.
In the third, Sepulveda led off with a double before being replaced by Swilley on the base path. Kuck walked and Jon Putnam moved the runners over to second and third with a sac bunt. Tapia singled to the pitcher to score Swilley before Mike Guadagnini's groundout to second allowed Kuck to come across and make it 7-0.
Guadagnini added his second RBI of the game by singling in Kuck. Meraz tallied a sacrifice fly that scored Tapia to put the Cougars up nine in the fifth.
Sepulveda registered an RBI groundout and
Zach Tieger got into the act with an RBI single down the right-field line in the eighth.
Game Two
Rich Montanez launched his first homerun of the season while Bentson, Sepulveda and Bernard each added a pair of RBI as CSUSM cruised, 13-3.
Bentson made it 1-0 in the first with an RBI single before Montanez cracked a two-run homerun to right-center in the bottom of the second.
Kuck singled to lead off the fourth before Swilley brought him in with a line-drive triple to left center. Meraz knocked Swilley in with an RBI single to make it 5-0.
CSUSM then scored two runs via errors, as Guadagnini scored from third on an overthrow by the catcher in an attempt to gun down Bernard at second. Then, Bentson singled to right before the right fielder mishandled the bouncing ball. Bernard would have scored anyway, but the miscue allowed Bentson to round first and reach second.
Leading 7-0 with the game pretty much out of reach, CSUSM added six more runs on five hits in the bottom of the fifth to put a stamp on the win.
Brooks Noble walked and eventually moved to third on Swilley's single. With runners on first and third, Tapia's chopper found space between the second baseman and the shortstop to bring home Noble.
After Tieger walked to load the bases, Bernard lifted a two-run double to left center. Putnam added a bases loaded, two-run single to push the lead to 12-0. Noble, in his second at-bat of the inning, finished off the rally with a single through the left side to bring in Tieger and push CSUSM's lead to 13.
LSU scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh to pull within 13-3.
Hunter Brown started for the Cougars and lasted three innings. He struck out four and allowed three hits, but did not work the required amount of innings to earn the victory.
Kevin Hilton (5-2) threw the next three innings and struck out four.
Justin Hertzmann pitched the top of the seventh and struck out a pair.
The Cougars and Golden Eagles will play the final two games of their four-game set on Sunday. First pitch is slated for noon.
