By Zach DeMarcus
February 27, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Baseball (12-8) dropped a non-conference game this afternoon against Hope International (12-10) by a score of 6-11. Scott Singh picked up a pair of hits and two RBIs coming in off the bench.
 
Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz said, "On days like today, the bright things seem to stand out a little more because there weren't very many of them. I want to point out Scott Singh. It's awesome to see him as a senior who really hasn't had a whole lot of opportunity this year come in and get two hits and two RBIs. That guy is constantly ready to help this team on and off the field in seen and unseen ways.
 
"He's just a selfless giving teammate. I hope that the guys around him can be more and more influenced by the leadership that he brings to the table. He gave us a chance to be back in that game and even somehow a chance to win it late. I'm super proud of Scottie."
 
Dylan Sund took the mound for the Warriors for his second start of the year and after a one-two-three first inning, he struggled in his second inning of work. Hope's Tristan Hildebrandt and John Santospago reached on back-to-back singles. They both advanced 90 feet on a wild pitch. Jeff Murray was walked to load the bases. Jonah Dean-Hargroves followed suit with a walk to bring in Hildebrandt for the first run of the game. Will Davis hit an RBI-single to plate Santospago. Sund then struck out the next batter and induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
 
Hope added to their lead in the top of the fifth. Blake Ronca led off with a walk. Brandon Gonzalez singled to right field – advancing Ronca to second. Frank Garriola followed with an RBI-single to left field – scoring Ronca and advancing Gonzalez to second. John James Battaglia hit in Gonzalez and advanced Garriola to third on an RBI-double to left field.
 
After a Hildebrandt walk to load the bases, right-hander Andrew Sim came in to relieve Will Anderson on the mound for the Warriors. Santospago reached on a fielder's choice to shortstop – Hildebrandt was out at second and Garriola scored on the play. Murray finished the scoring with an RBI-single to left field – scoring Battaglia for the fourth run of the inning and extending Hope's lead to six.
 
Westmont got on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Taylor Bush led off with a drag-bunt single. He then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Michael Stefanic lined a double past a diving left fielder to score Bush. Luke Coffey singled through the right side to advance Stefanic to third. After a pop out, pinch-hitter Singh lined a single to center field to score Stefanic.
 
Singh's hit ended the afternoon for Hope's starting pitcher Shawn Dumser Jr. He finished going five and a third innings while giving up six hits and two runs and would pick up the win. Josh Steele came in as the reliever. He made quick work of Todd Yost who flew out to left field on the first pitch for the second out of the inning. William Hoyer-Pingle then flew out to center to end the inning. Westmont continued to trail 2-6.
 
Pinch-hitter Zack Mendez led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. Mendez advanced to third on a single by Hayden Euper. Brody Weiss hit into a 5-4-3 double play – Mendez scored on the play. Stefanic would reach first on an error by the third baseman. He then stole second to get himself in scoring position for the cleanup hitter Coffey. Coffey worked a full count before singling through the left side to score Stefanic.
 
Bryce Morison singled through the right side to continue the two-out rally to bring up Singh. He muscled the first pitch he saw over the head of the third baseman for his second hit of the afternoon. Coffey scored on the single for the third run of the inning – bringing Westmont within one run of Hope with the score at 5-6.
 
The Royals threatened in the top of the eighth. Bailey Reid came in to relieve Bay Buckley with two outs and runners on first and second. The runners advanced on a wild pitch by Reid. With a 2-2 count on Josh Balbuena, Reid spun a breaking ball to get Balbuena to groundout to the shortstop to end the inning and keep the score at 5-6.
 
Hope added to their lead in the top of the ninth. Hildebrandt led off the inning with a walk. After a groundout, Murray walked as well– Brendan Turcotte came on to pinch run for Murray. Hargroves was then walked to load the bases. Cory Dawson came in to the game to relieve Reid.
 
Davis squared to attempt a safety squeeze. Dawson went to flip the ball to the catcher Tyler Roper. The ball got passed Roper allowing Hildebrandt and Turcotte to score. Pinch-hitter Lee Mutter singled through the left side to score Hargroves and Davis. Ronca came back in to the game to run for Mutter. He would advance to third on a double off the bat of Gonzalez. Ronca then scored on a sacrifice fly from Garriola to bring the score to 5-11.
 
The Warriors responded with one run in the bottom of the ninth. Stefanic led off the inning with a double off the left field wall. Coffey advanced Stefanic to third on a groundout to the pitcher. Morison would score Stefanic with a sacrifice fly to left field – brining the game to its final score of 6-11 in favor of the Royals.
 
The Warriors used nine pitchers in the contest and suffered from allowing too many walks. Ruiz said, "You're never going to win a baseball game when you walk 14 guys and we did that today. The game won't reward that. We have a lot of work to do.
 
"We need to be better at our process in all areas: defense, offense, and on the mound. We need to do a better job of believing in who we are, how we prepare, what we do, and let it take over and stop trying to be in control of the outcome of everything. Then I think we'll have a chance to compete at our best.
 
The Warriors travel to Santa Clarita to face The Master's for a three-game Golden State Athletic Conference series on Friday and Saturday. Friday's single game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and Saturday's doubleheader is set for an 11:00 a.m. first-pitch.