Azusa, Calif. - Azusa Baseball Field - The Vanguard University baseball team took a five-game winning streak with them to Azusa Pacific this afternoon to take on the No. 5-ranked Cougars in the first game of the four-game series. The Lions held a 5-3 lead before an 8-run eighth inning propelled the Cougars to an 11-5 come-from-behind win to take a 1-0 lead in the GSAC series.
Senior Gabriel Garcia pitched seven strong innings for the Lions, holding the powerful Cougar offense to eight hits and three runs. However, carrying a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Cougars' offense came alive. Three straight hits by the Cougars plated the tying runs and the Lions called on Kevin Ponzo to relieve Garcia with the go-ahead run on second base with no outs. The go-ahead run scored on a wild pitch, but the biggest blow of the inning came on a one-out grand slam from Brent Warren. Tucker Woods took over for Ponzo, inheriting a runner on first base, but the Cougars would add one more run to the board before Woods could record the final two outs and end APU's eight-run outburst.
The Lion offense had worked steady to build its lead with single runs in the first, second, and sixth innings. J.T. Truhett led off the game with a double and scored VU's first run on a single by Hank Yates. Nikko Tountas doubled VU's lead in the top of the second with a solo homer to left field. APU scored a run in the second and third innings to tie the game at two, but the Lions grabbed a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth as Yates singled and eventually scored on a Cougar error.
APU tied the game in the bottom of the sixth and the score remained 3-3 until the top of the eighth when the Lions regained the lead.
David Kiriakos singled with two outs and
Bryce Arroyo homered to right-center field to post VU's 5-3 lead.
Vanguard head coach Ralph Grajeda was happy with how his team battled today against the first-place Cougars. "What you don't see in the boxscore is how our players are grinding their guts out. Their effort should have been rewarded with a ?W' today, but that's baseball. Gabe Garcia gave us a great performance tonight. We have to minimize the big inning on the mound. I'm proud of my staff and club."
Arroyo finished with three hits as he and Yates combined for half of VU's 10 hits. Garcia dropped to 3-4 overall with the loss, and the Lions fall to 14-12 overall and 5-10 in GSAC. The teams will rematch tomorrow at APU before concluding the series with a double header at Vanguard on Saturday.
