By Jacob Norling
May 17, 2021
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) The road to Lewiston has gone from a possible sprint to a marathon for the Warriors, after Westmont dropped their first game of the NAIA Opening Round Tournament to Hope International, by a score of 10-5.
 
The Warriors and the Royals have now met nine times this season and after Monday's result, Hope International has now taken seven of the nine matchups.
 
For Westmont things unraveled quickly in the second inning, when starter Jameson Kruger's command issues resurfaced. Kruger surrendered only one hit in the inning, but issued four free passes (two walks and two hit-by-pitches) and the Royals hung a four spot that felt insurmountable from the start.
 
"First of all Jamie came out to compete today," said Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz. "I don't want to take anything away from him. With that inning getting away from him, it was really a couple walks and hit batsmen that ended up being the difference in the game."
 
With what the Warriors hope to be a long week ahead, one silver lining in Kruger's final line was his ability to give the Warriors length. Kruger went seven innings, allowing Coach Ruiz to not have to dip into the top tier of his bullpen in a week where Westmont is carrying only ten pitchers.
 
The Warriors trailed 5-0 heading into the fifth when Daniel Netz gave his dugout their first reason to cheer of the afternoon, clubbing his 12th home run of the season to right-center field. Hope International added another run in the last of the fifth, and in the ensuing half-inning Westmont had their real look at the game.
 
Down 6-1, Thomas Rudinsky drove in Alex Stufft and Simon Reid scored on a wild pitch, bringing the Warriors within three. A pair of wild pitches allowed Rudinsky to move up to third with only one out for Drew Bayard. But Bayard swung through a fastball, necessitating a base hit to score the runner. A batter later the Warriors squandered the opportunity to pull within a pair, when Josh Rego bounced out to short to end the inning.
 
Adding insult to injury, Brennan McKenzie launched his 17th home run of the season to immediately get back the runs given up by the Royal's in the inning prior.
 
Westmont had one final chance to claw their way back into things in the eighth, when John Jensen led off with a double and came home on a single by Stufft. Reid followed Stufft with a single of his own, and the Warriors had two on with nobody out while trailing 8-4. But the club's inability to come up with a big hit kept them chasing the Royals, when Rudinsky, Bayard, and Zack Mendez all struck out swinging to end the inning.
 
Hope International's starter Gavin Velasquez was facing the Warriors lineup for the third time this season and turned in his best performance. Velasquez went six innings in total, striking out four and scattering four runs.
 
"The whole day we were playing catch up," said Ruiz. "And it seemed like we got the offense going a little too late. But we gave ourselves some chances to get back in the game, and I don't want to overlook Velasquez who was the best we've seen him all year. It's not like we were chasing pitches out of the zone to get ourselves in bad counts, it was just tough to string hits together and when we did it was too little too late."
 
Hope International added two more in the bottom of the eighth, then Daniel Netz launched a solo shot in the ninth for his second home run of the game. But there would be no further rally for the Warriors, who dropped their first game of the Opening Round 10-5. Netz, who homered twice and recorded the club's only walk, never came to bat with a man on base.
 
Westmont will now follow a similar path as they did in 2019, where they will have to climb through the loser's bracket in order to have a chance to play for a ticket to the World Series. The Warriors play fifth-seeded Corban (Ore.) tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. If Westmont wins, they will play again tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. If the Warriors' suffer another loss during the Opening Round, their season would come to an end.
 
It would take five consecutive wins for Westmont to advance to the NAIA World Series for the first time in program history.
 
"Now we have to play this thing one game at a time," said Ruiz. "If we can get to the next day, pitching starts to even out and anything can happen. I like our chances."