By Zach DeMarcus
March 28, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Baseball (21-12, 14-10 GSAC) fell to the Firestorm of Arizona Christian (14-20, 9-15 GSAC) this afternoon in the first game of a three-game Golden State Athletic Conference series by a score of 2-4. Grant Gardner gave the Warriors a chance late with a strong seven inning outing on short rest.
 
This week's series was moved to Wednesday and Thursday due to the Easter holiday this weekend. This meant Gardner took the mound on four days rest as opposed to his normal six days.
 
Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz said, "I thought it was a pretty solid outing by Grant. He wasn't his best and he shouldn't have been his best because he's pitched on six days rest all year and then he had to pitch on four today. He did a good job staying composed even though we were pretty poor offensively. He certainly gave us a chance to go win that game."
 
Gardner would go on to throw seven innings. He scattered six hits and surrendered only one run while striking out four. He lowered his ERA to a conference-leading 2.15.
 
Arizona Christian sent Robert Milacki to the mound. He kept the Warriors at bay for eight innings while giving up only three hits, one unearned run, and striking out nine.
 
In the top of the first, Dom Rodriguez got things off to a quick start as he lined the first pitch he saw to the left center gap. Center fielder Bryce Morison quickly got to the ball at the fence and fired it in to shortstop Taylor Bush – who threw out Rodriguez at third base. Gardner settled in and got through the rest of the inning with only eight pitches.
 
The Firestorm threatened in the top of the second. Jonathan Nunnally and Michael Dunnebecke led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Gardner struck out the following batter and induced a ground out to third base. He then coaxed Trent Troncone to hit a blooper towards left field – Henry Hedeen came in to make the sliding to catch to end the inning.
 
Arizona Christian struck first in the top of the fourth. With one out, Nunnally whacked the first pitch he saw over the left field fence – putting the Firestorm up 1-0.
 
The Warriors would equal the score in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Morison reached on an error by the shortstop. He advanced to second base as the throw bounced over the first base dugout. Roper hit an infield single to third base – allowing Morison to advance to third. Morison would then score on a throwing error by the third baseman.
 
Bailey Reed came in to relieve Gardner to start the eighth inning. After a fly out, Cohen Heckethorn singled on a ball that nailed Reed's leg and rolled to right field. Matt Mara followed with a walk. Reed struck out Nunnally for the second out of the inning. Dunnebecke hit a groundball to the shortstop. Everybody was safe after a throwing error by the shortstop – leaving the bases loaded with two outs for the Firestorm.
 
Left-hander Cory Dawson came in to try and finish out the inning on the mound. Pinch-hitter Adam Wolfe hit a two RBI-single through the left side to score Mara and Heckethorne while advancing Dunnebecke to third. Eric Schwalbe drew a walk to again load the bases. All three runners advanced 90 feet on the wild pitch – allowing Dunnebecke to score. Sean Coyne came in to finish up the frame on the mound and would get the next batter to pop up to shortstop to end the three-run inning.
 
Coyne came back out for the top of the ninth. He surrendered a single to Rodriguez to start the inning – he would advance to second on a wild pitch. Coyne induced a groundout that allowed Rodriguez to advance to third. Coyne struck out Mara for the second out. Nunnally was intentionally walked and he would steal second – leaving runners on second and third with two outs. With a 1-2 count on Dunnebecke, Coyne settled in and struck him out swinging to squash the threat and keep the deficit at three.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, Taylor Bush grinded out an at-bat and eventually hit a slow chopper to the shortstop that he beat out for an infield single. Stefanic stepped up and hit a line drive that nicked off the pitcher's glove towards the shortstop – Stefanic beat out the shortstop's throw. After a Warrior strikeout, Austin Muller hit a slow groundball to third – he was thrown out at first and Bush and Stefanic advanced to second and third.
 
Hedeen worked a full count and wisely went with an outside fastball and hit an RBI-single to left field – scoring Bush and pushing Stefanic to third. Hayden Euper came in to pinch run for Hedeen at first. Euper, representing the tying run, advanced to second on a wild pitch. With a 2-2 count Morison struck out on a high fastball to end the game and seal the 4-2 victory for the Firestorm.
 
"I thought Hedeen had a great at-bat to extend that game. His at-bat was probably the best at-bat of the day on our side," said Ruiz
 
"Defensively, we took advantage of some base running mistakes and we stole some outs from them. Ultimately, you have to give credit to their starter. He did a good job of exposing what we weren't good at today and he exposed it pretty well. He continued to execute his plan and we didn't make the adjustments that we needed to make offensively.
 
"I think if we want to win games late in the season and potentially into the postseason we need to get locked in to executing. I don't think we were good enough at that today," finished Ruiz.
 
The Warriors and the Firestorm continue their three-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m.