Westmont Baseball swept Point Loma Nazarene (11-14, 4-8 GSAC) in a Golden State Athletic Conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon in San Diego to win the four-game series with the Sea Lions three games to one. With the wins, Westmont improves to 11-12-1 overall and 6-6 in conference play.
Tim Leary (2-3), the winning pitcher in game one, aided his own cause with a three-for-three performance at the plate consisting of two home runs and a double. Leary tallied five RBIs in the Warriors 8-2 win.
On the mound, Leary pitched six innings allowing one run on six hits. He struck out seven and walked three.
Mitch Crocker (3-0) pitched the final three innings to earn his first save of the year. Crocker gave up one run on four hits. He struck out four without allowing a walk.
The Warriors scored in each of the first three innings, starting with a two-run homer by Leary in the first. David Gabel led off the second with a solo home run and Coby Cress hit a two-run home run in the third. In the fourth inning, Leary doubled down the left field line to drive in Brandon Gildea.
Leary's two-run home run in the sixth completed the scoring for the Warriors who tallied 11 hits.
In the latter game of the twin bill, Westmont hung on to post a 5-4 victory in a seven-inning affair. Geoff Rocha (2-3) earned the win, pitching four-plus innings while allowing three runs on five hits. Rocha struck out three and walked one. Crocker picked up his second save of the day, allowing one hit without surrendering a run.
Westmont put up three runs in the top of the third inning on an RBI-single by Hunter Christianson and a two-RBI single by David Pennington.
In the top of the fourth, Christianson made it a 4-0 game with a lead-off home run to right field. The Sea Lions roared back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth and another in the fifth to pull within one run (4-3).
In the top of the sixth, Brent Fukushima received a lead-off walk then advanced to second a wild pitch. A sacrifice bunt by catcher Jarratt Rouse moved Fukushima over to third with one away. After Pennington struck out to make it two outs, J.J. Turbin laid down a bunt single to bring Fukushima home.
With the game on the line in the bottom of the seventh, Crocker was asked to take the mound with men on second and third and no outs. After walking Tyler Hanzawa to load the bases, Crocker pitched to Clinton Harwick who hit a fly ball to right field. Daniel Hernandez, who was on third, did not score, but Eddie Roberts was thrown out at second when Rouse received the ball at home from Cress in right field and fired back to second to retire Roberts from the base pads.
With two away, Ricky Gingras was intentionally walked to load the bases. Bryan Burkhead then singled through the right side to bring in Hernandez from third. When Hanzawa attempted to score from second, however, he was thrown out at the plate by Cress to end the game.
Next up for the Warriors is a non-conference doubleheader with the Tigers of Occidental on Tuesday at Russ Carr Field. First pitch is scheduled for eleven o'clock.
