Azusa, Calif. - The Vanguard baseball team opened the 2011 GSA C slate on the road this evening at Azusa Pacific. Scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. start, the Lions' first evening of the season did not go well. Out-hit 8-5 and committing two errors, the Lions were defeated 4-1 by the hosting APU Cougars who stacked their four runs into two innings of offense.
Vanguard's starting pitcher Robert Purpura, a 2010 All-GSAC Relief Pitcher, tossed a zero on the board in the bottom of the first against the Cougars, but the second inning was a rough one for Purpura and the Lions. Allowing three hits in the inning, combined with a two-out VU error that allowed another run to score, Purpura was charged with a pair of Cougar runs and the Lions fell into a 2-0 hole after two complete innings.
Purpura cruised through the next four innings, allowing a lone hit, before running into trouble again in the Cougar side of the seventh. Still leading 2-0, the Cougars received a leadoff single from Anthony Rodriguez to begin the seventh. Rodriguez stole second base and moved to third on an error by VU's shortstop. The Lions relieved Purpura with Corey Kohnkey and he struck out the first Cougar he faced. However, a wild pitch would allow APU's third run to cross the plate and pinch-hitter Alex Ring singled to bring home APU's fourth run of the game.
Held to a pair of hits through the first seven innings, the Lions were trailing 4-0 by the time they came to the plate in the top of the eighth inning, still facing APU starter Colby Gurney. Jacob Domingos walked to lead off the frame and advanced to second on a single by Jerry Pena. Kyle Hardman singled to right-center field to score Domingos, but was later caught stealing for the first out of the inning. Nolan Rudman replaced Gurney and walked pinch hitter Jeremiah Mejia to bring the tying run to the plate with only one out. Rudman would record the last two outs to preserve the 4-1 lead for the Cougars.
Rudman struck out the first batter of VU's ninth inning before giving up a single to seniors Tyson Leighton and a walk to Jason Dovel. Facing the tying run for the second time in two innings, Rudman struck out the next two Lions to end the game and record the save.
APU tallied six hits off Purpura and one each off VU relievers Kohnke and Joey Vega, and capitalized on VU's two errors to post the four runs and earn the win for Gurney, who improves to 2-1 this season.
VU's five hits came from five different players, but Hardman's RBI single was VU's only run-producing hit of the day as Purpura drops to 1-2 with the loss. The Lions have lost four straight and drop to 4-7 overall and 0-1 in GSAC.
The teams will resume their four-game GSAC series tomorrow. With modifications to the series due to expected rain on Saturday, the teams will play a double header tomorrow with Vanguard playing as the home team in game two. The series will conclude at Vanguard on Friday with a single game beginning at 12:00 p.m. in Costa Mesa.
