No. 3 Kean too Much for Kingsmen
Missed opportunities hurt CLU
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Cal
Lutheran Kingsmen put up a fight against the No. 3 Kean Cougars, but ultimately
fell 4-3 after too many missed opportunities during a Wednesday matinee on
George "Sparky" Anderson Field at Ullman Stadium.
Box Score: KU 4, CLU 3 -
F
Kean
broke a scoreless game in the top of the fourth with a run before CLU came back
with three in the bottom of the inning to take a lead. Nine Kingsmen came to
the plate and six reached base with four hits and two hit batters. Nick Boggan,
Nick DeLorenzo and Kevin Leonard each singled and scored. Garrett Smith lifted
a sac fly in the frame as well.
The
Cougars cut the CLU advantage to one in the fifth with a run on a pair of
singles and a sac fly off the bat of Vincent Galya. Kean then went ahead in the
top of the sixth with a pair of runs on a single and a double with some help
from a shaky CLU bullpen.
Cal
Lutheran threatened in the bottom of the sixth, despite leaving a man on third.
They also made some noise in the ninth with a one-out walk by Iggy Wagner who
followed with his second stolen base of the game. CLU batters left nine men on
base today, six of whom were in scoring position.
Defensively,
the Kingsmen had a good showing, despite a pair of errors. Smith fired a strike
to the plate where Mike Vineyard tagged out Eddie Jennings for the second out
of the inning after the ball initially ricocheted off starting pitcher John
LaMoure's glove.
Vineyard
and Trevor Koons connected to throw out two would-be-base stealers and Kevin
Eto caught a third man running in the seventh. Koons was part of one double
play in the game as well. Third baseman Nicho DellaValle completed a 5-3
double-play in the sixth.
LaMoure
went 3.2 innings for CLU, allowing just one run on five hits while walking
none. Aaron Roth was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs on four
hits. Scott Peters, Brian Kernochan, Chris Park and Matthew Burden also took
the hill in the game.
CLU collected just seven hits, and Dominick Solley had the only extra base hit with a double in the third.
Kean
starting pitcher Michael Russo lasted just 3.2 innings and Daniel Hansen came
on in relief, earning the win.
Cal
Lutheran (13-8) returns to SCIAC play on Friday, March 23 when they travel to
Occidental for a single game beginning at 3:00 p.m.