Azusa, Calif. - Avenging a 4-1 loss to Azusa Pacific yesterday, the Vanguard Lions baseball team swept Azusa Pacific Cougars today on APU's home field. Firing off a 10-3 win in game one, the Lions then slipped away with the sweep with a 1-0 victory in the nightcap.
Riding the shoulders of game-two starter Gabriel Garcia, the Lions needed extra innings to pull off the sweep as the seven scheduled innings were not enough to separate the GSAC squads. Owning the hill in the nightcap, which began at 5:40 p.m., Garcia was practically unhittable under the APU lights. Striking out nine Cougars and allowing only two hits plus four walks, Garcia posted eight straight zeroes on the scoreboard for his first solo shutout of the season.
APU's Jacob Cage was nearly impressive with eight strikeouts and no walks while holding the Lions to five hits in 7.1 innings pitched. Two of those five hits came in the bottom of the eighth inning as VU scored the game-ending run. Considered the home team due to a weather-caused scheduling change, the Lions began their final at bat with a leadoff single from Kyle Hardman, his second hit of the game. Jerry Pena sacrificed him over to second base before Hardman's pinch runner, Sean Wilson, took third on a wild pitch. Senior catcher Mario Romero then singled down the left field line to plate Wilson for the GSAC sweep.
Game one also began as a pitching duel between APU's Morgan Wynn and VU's Antonio Peraza. Although the Cougars took a took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, neither team scored again until VU tied the game in the top of the fourth inning when Jason Dovel doubled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Pena. Vanguard moved ahead an inning later on an RBI single by Jacob Domingos and the Lions would not trail the rest of the day.
Taking advantage of three APU errors in the top of the eighth inning, the Lions scored three unearned runs, with two of them scoring on an RBI single by Romero and a squeeze bunt by Eric Sanchez.
APU cut VU's lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the eighth with a pair of runs off Peraza. A two-run double by Josh Leite sent the Lions to the bullpen for Joseph Vega III who recorded the final two outs of the inning and preserve the two-run lead.
Vanguard exploded for five runs on six hits in the top of the ninth to give Vega more than enough insurance offense for the last inning of work. Dovel delivered an RBI single, while Pena and Romero drove home two apiece to cap VU's five-run rally.
Peraza held the Cougars to three runs on four hits and struck out four batters for his third win of the season, while Vega struck out two and gave up one hit in his 1.2 inning save.
APU was held to seven hits on the day and drops to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in GSAC with the sweep.
Hardman collected four hits in eight at bats in the double header, while Pena added two hits and three RBIs and Romero totaled three hits and four runs batted in. Vanguard out-hit the Cougars 12-5 in game two and 17-7 on the day, improving to 6-7 overall and 2-1 in GSAC.
Taking two of the first three games of a four-game GSAC series with the Cougars, the Lions will host APU for game four tomorrow beginning at 12:00 p.m. at VUSC.
