EL CAJON, Calif. – Clayton Voechting (SR/Temecula, CA) (6-4) was excellent on the mound Saturday as he and No. 14 Vanguard picked up a 5-1 Golden State Athletic Conference win against sixth-ranked San Diego Christian at the SDC Field. Voechting two-hit the Hawks, throwing six innings for the Lions while surrendering just one earned run. He also managed four strikeouts in the outing.
The Pride split the doubleheader with SDC after falling 5-3 in the opener. The Blue and Gold's 2014 record stands at 27-16 overall and the team is 18-12 in GSAC play.
San Diego Christian holds GSAC bragging rights as the league's top-team. The Hawks are 34-13 on the season and 21-9 in conference slates.
Freshman left fielder Brandon Sandoval (FR/Fallbrook, CA) led the VU offense with five hits on the day. He managed two knocks, a stolen base and scored two runs in game one before wailing on the ball to come up with a perfect 3-for-3 performance in the second contest. Sandoval also tallied an RBI, a walk and a run scored in the nightcap.
Eddie Rivera (SR/Anaheim, CA) (5-2) started the opener and went 7.1 innings before suffering the close loss.
Rivera and the Lions went down 2-0 after the first frame, but tied the competition at 2-all after VU's Nick Rodda (SR/Santa Rosa, CA), Sandoval, Bret Collins (JR/Manhattan Beach, CA) and Thomas Mobley (SR/Anaheim, CA) hit consecutive knocks to start the third frame. Sandoval garnered the frames' lone extra base hit, a double, while B. Collins brought in lead-off man, Rodda, with his single to center field.
SDC regained control in the fourth with two additional runs, but VU responded again in the fifth via an RBI base knock from Mobley to cut the margin to 4-3.
Unfortunately, the Hawks tacked on another score in the bottom of the eighth, and the Blue and Gold could not answer as the contest came to a close a half frame later.
In the nightcap, the Lions led from beginning to end, scoring two runs in the second to go up 2-0, and then posting one run in each of the second, sixth and seventh frames to defeat the Hawks 5-1.
Vanguard out-produced SDCC 12-3 at the plate, while also benefitting from a pair of Hawks' errors.
Four different Lions garnered at least two knocks in the game. Sandoval led the way with three, while Rodda, Mobley and McKnight posted two apiece for VU.
Rodda and McKnight both notched doubles off of SDCC's starter, Joey Aquino, and John Schwer (SR/Burbank, CA) and Mobley stole bases on Jacob Rogers' watch.
Vanguard has two GSAC series' remaining in 2014. The first will be played at Biola starting on April 16, and the Lions will host No. 18 Concordia the following weekend, April 25-26 at home.
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