By Zach DeMarcus
April 30, 2018

(COSTA MESA, Calif.) Westmont Baseball (34-14) won game two of the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament this afternoon by a score of 5-0. The number two seeded Warriors took down the third-seeded Lions of Vanguard (28-24-1. Grant Gardner threw a complete game shutout for the Warriors and Luke Coffey went two for four with a home run and four RBIs.
 
Gardner picked up his ninth win of the season to go with two losses. He primarily pitched to contact as he scattered six hits while striking out one and walking one. Gardner said of his approach today, "It was just to keep the nerves down and go out and pitch. I've faced Vanguard twice this year. I know they like to jump on fastballs. The game plan was to go after them with fastballs and let them pound them into the ground. It was a good day."
 
The Lions sent GSAC Pitcher of the Year Jordan Dreibelbis to the mound. He would go on to give up five runs on nine hits while striking out three and walking two. The loss was his fifth of the year to go with seven wins.
 
Taylor Garcia got things started for the Warriors with a sharply hit single to the third baseman in the bottom of the first. Tyler Roper moved Garcia to second with a sacrifice bunt down the first base line. A Michael Stefanic groundout moved Garcia to third – bringing up Luke Coffey. Coffey hammed the first pitch he saw for a no-doubt two-run home run over the right center field fence – giving Westmont the early 2-0 lead after one.
 
Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz said, "We're facing the conference pitcher of the year. You know you're going to get a competitive outing out of that guy any time he's on the mound. To get two on him in the first inning was huge.
 
"Luke got every bit of that pitch and put a good swing on it. It was great momentum for us early in that game and I thought our guys did a good job of capitalizing on it," added Ruiz.
 
In the bottom of the third, Garcia again led off with a single – this time via a perfectly placed drag bunt down the third base line. Roper followed with another sacrifice bunt to move Garcia to second. Stefanic singled to right field to put runners on first and third. After a pop out to first, the Lions escaped the jam with a well executed a fist-to-third pick off move to pick off Stefanic at first to end the inning.
 
Henry Hedeen stepped up to the plate to lead off the bottom of the fourth. He whacked a solo shot over the right field fence to extend Westmont's lead to 3-0 through four innings.
 
Sam Neufeld hit a double down the right field line with two outs in the top of the fifth. Gardner had retired the previous 10 Lion batters before Neufeld. Kody Wright followed with a single that nicked off Gardner's leg to put runners on first and third with two outs. With a 1-2 count on Chad Sutton, Gardner reared back and struck out Sutton to end the innings and escape the threat.
 
Westmont added two more in the bottom of the seventh. Travis Vander Molen hit a one-out single to center field. Garcia then snagged his third hit of the game with a single to left field. Roper reached first on a fielder's choice – Garcia was out at second. This left runners on the corners with two outs. Stefanic drew a walk to load the bases. Coffey then hit a ball down the left field line that hit off the third baseman's glove for a two RBI-double – extending Westmont's lead to the game's final score of 5-0.
 
Ruiz added of Garcia's three-hit day, "It's been the story of his season. He's been probably the most dynamic piece of our offense. The biggest thing I can say about him is consistency. He's continued to be a guy that we can rely on to be consistent. Getting him on base is a huge part of what we do as an offense. He's always here to compete."
 
Gardner only allowed one Lion baserunner to reach third base all game. Ruiz said, "Obviously as a coaching staff we're thrilled by Grant's outing. Getting our Friday starter to give us a complete game shutout at Vanguard's field against Vanguard – it's not easy to do. I thought he was tremendous today. He put the team on his back. I'm super proud of the way he showed up to compete today."
 
Taylor Bush finished the game with seven assists at shortstop. "I think Taylor Bush played tremendous shortstop. I think sometimes it's easy to overlook that when a guy is as dominant as Grant was on the mound today. This infield traditionally can play fast, can play slow, and can get bouncy. He made plays all day and kept it so that Grant didn't have to make unnecessary pitches – that's really important."
 
The Warriors will now play tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. in game five of the GSAC Tournament. Fifth-seeded The Master's (28-23) won the opening game of the tournament against fourth-seeded Hope International (25-25). Westmont will play the winner of this afternoon's game between The Master's and top-seeded William Jessup (35-15).
 
Ruiz said of today's win, "It's huge. Not only to win the first game but to not have to use our bullpen. That's a really important thing because tomorrow we only have to play one game. We'll get to day three one way or the other having only played two games in the first two days. When you look at the format of this tournament it's where you want to be.
 
"Overall, I thought we executed, played defense and had some timely hitting. We played the game the right way today," finished Ruiz.