By Zach DeMarcus
February 9, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Baseball (6-0) completed a four-game sweep of British Columbia (0-6) in a doubleheader today with 14-1 and 9-0 victories. This is a historic start for Westmont as they have not been 6-0 since at least 1975. Bryce Morison went five for six over the two games with a grand slam and seven RBIs.
 
Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz said, "I was really happy with the way that we showed up to compete today. It could have been really easy to come out today and get flatfooted and just expect to win. I felt like we showed up ready to play today. We just played good baseball. I have to give credit to our pitchers. Justin Sanders set the tone early in that first game and had a phenomenal outing."
 
Junior right-hander Sanders (1-0) took the mound for the Warriors. Sanders threw six perfect innings before surrendering his only hit of his outing in the seventh inning. Sanders would face the minimum through his seven innings pitched – due to a double play in the seventh. He finished with six strikeouts and zero walks in the victory.
 
The Warriors' offense wasted no time getting started in game one as Tyler Roper drew a five-pitch one-out walk – Paul Mezurashi came on as a courtesy runner. After a fly out, Luke Coffey and Isaiah Leach drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Morison hit a sharp groundball up the middle to score Mezurashi and Coffey.
 
Westmont added three in the bottom of the second. Austin Muller led off the inning with a single to left field. Alex Stufft followed with a drag-bunt single. Muller and Stufft advanced to second and third from a sacrifice bunt by Taylor Garcia. Roper punched the first pitch he saw out into right field for a sacrifice fly to score Muller.
 
Taylor Bush promptly lined a ball passed the shortstop to score Stufft. Bush would take second base on a ball in the dirt read before Coffey hit a groundball through the left side to score Bush – bringing the score to 5-0 in favor of the Warriors.
 
After a Sanders one-two-three top of the third, the Warriors struck again with their third-straight crooked number. Morison led off the inning with a double to right center. Nicky Sablock advanced Morison to third on a groundout to second. Muller hit an RBI single to left field to score Morison. Stufft singled through the left side. After a fly out, Roper hit an RBI single up the middle to score Muller. The Warriors chased the Thunderbirds' starter Jared Spearing out of the game after Bush drew a walk to load the bases.
 
British Columbia brought in Brendan Logan to face Coffey. On a 2-1 count Coffey delivered a two-RBI single to left field to plate Stufft and Mezurashi – putting Westmont up by an early 9-0 lead through three innings.
 
The Warriors added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Roper led off the inning with a walk – Mezurashi came back on as the courtesy runner. After a fly out, Mezurashi stole second. Coffey drew a walk. Devin Perez came on to pinch hit and hit a groundball to the first baseman who threw the ball into left field attempting to throw out Coffey at second – Mezurashi scored on the error and Coffey advanced to third. Morison hit a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Coffey and extend the Warriors' lead to 11-0.
 
Sanders was perfect through six innings before Ben Mitchell broke up Sanders' perfect-game bid by hitting a line drive into left field for a single to lead off the seventh. Sanders got the next batter to ground into a double play and struck out the following Thunderbird to get through seven innings while still facing the minimum.
 
Left-hander Dylan Sund came on in relief. After giving up back-to-back hits to start the inning, he induced a groundball out. He then struck out the next batter and the baserunner at first was called out due to batter's interference on the throw down from the new catcher Kahi Rodriguez – ending the inning with a zero for Sund.
 
Westmont sent some newcomers to the plate in the bottom of the eighth that would result in three more Warrior runs. With one out, Sage Pera was hit by a pitch in his pinch-hit at bat. Drew Bayard singled to right field. Austin Muller was hit by a pitch to load the bases for freshman pinch-hitter Jeremiah Canada. Canada collected his first collegiate hit with a three-RBI, bases-clearing double down the left field line to bring the score to 14-0.
 
"A bright sign for the future was some of our young guys getting their first college opportunities. I think overall those guys showed that when their time comes they're going to be ready," noted Ruiz.
 
Seth Moke came on to finish the game for the Warriors in the top of the ninth. He would give up one hit and an unearned run – bringing the final score to 14-1 in favor of Westmont.
 
Westmont sent out freshman right-hander Eric Oseguera to the mound to start game two. Oseguera would go three and one-third innings, giving up one hit and striking out two Thunderbird batters. Ruiz said, "Eric Oseguera, he's a freshman and that was his first outing – he competed. He made pitches when we needed him to make pitches and he put up zeros in a tight game. I was really excited to see that."
 
The Thunderbirds' starting pitcher Garrett Hawkins got out of a second-inning jam. Hawkins surrendered a leadoff walk to Coffey before balking – allowing Coffey to advance to second with no outs. Hawkins rose to the occasion by striking out the next two Warrior hitters and inducing a fly out to right to end the inning.
 
The Warriors got on the board with a solo blast off the bat of first baseman Travis Vander Molen that flew well over the right field wall – giving Westmont the early 1-0 lead through three. "I commend our first basemen. We went on a platoon situation today where Alex Stufft got the start against the lefty in game one and Vander Molen got the start against the righty in game two. Stufft went three for four in that first game, and then Travis hits the homerun in the second game.
 
"It's pretty special that those guys are fighting for each other as teammates. I think those are good signs of us being a close knit team with chemistry where guys are going to want the next guy to succeed even if that means giving up a little something personally," commented Ruiz.
 
With one out and a runner on second base in the top of the fourth, Left-hander Will Anderson came in to relieve Oseguera. Anderson promptly struck out the Thunderbirds' Jaxon Valcke and induced a pop up to first by Nolan Weger to avoid the threat.
 
Senior right-hander Toby Dunlap came in to throw the fifth for the Warriors. Dunlap completed his inning of work with two strikeouts and a groundout.
 
Morison led off the bottom of the fifth with a double down the left field line to bring up Bayard. Bayard deposited the first pitch he saw over the right field fence for a two-run homerun – extending Westmont's lead to 3-0 after five.
 
"We had a good feeling we were going to get a fastball there. We decided we were going to bunt that at bat, but we were going to give him once pitch. He knew he had one swing otherwise he was going to sacrifice him over. He took advantage of that swing. It was a really cool moment for him. I think that was one of the biggest plays in the game," noted Ruiz.
 
Nolan Cannon took the bump for the Warriors to start the sixth. He induced a fly out before walking two and handing the ball off to Westmont's closer Bailey Reid in pursuit of a five-out save.
 
The two British Columbia baserunners in Ty Penner and Lucas Soper advanced 90 feet on a Reid wild pitch. Reid walked Jordan Dray to load the bases with one out. Reid then coaxed Valcke to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, Westmont sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six. Leach hit a bases-loaded RBI single to score Canada, who was running for Roper. Morison stamped the four-game sweep with a grand slam over the left field fence to put Westmont up by a commanding 8-0 lead.
 
Ruiz noted, "I thought he stayed on his plan and he did a really good job. He protected and battled with two strikes. That grand slam kind of capped it all off. He had an awesome day."
 
Reid gathered his third save of the young season by striking out two and inducing a pop out to himself to bring the game to its final score of 9-0 and complete the four-game sweep for the Warriors.
 
Westmont will return to Russ Carr Field to host #5 Lewis-Clark State on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.