SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Lucas Bixby (JR/DeWitt, IA) and Justin Graves (JR/Irvine, CA) provided quality starts to lead the Vanguard baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of San Diego Christian by scores of 5-2 and 11-3 on Friday. The Lions extended their school record winning streak to 16 straight games in opening up Golden State Athletic Conference action on a positive note.
Vanguard is now 18-2 on the season. The 18 wins is tied for first in the NAIA with Southeastern (Fla.).
The Hawks fell to 4-19 overall and 1-5 in GSAC play.
Vanguard's pitching staff has allowed three runs or less in seven of its last eight contests. The team ERA is 1.91 over that stretch.
Game 1 – An old fashioned pitching duel ensued as Bixby and San Diego Christian's Jack Schlotman battled from the mound.
Bixby got the better of the two in a 7.1 inning stint. He allowed nine hits but limited the damage to two runs from the Hawks offense. Bixby walked only one and struck out three.
Vanguard took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. The Lions loaded the bases via two singles and a walk, and Chad Sutton (SR/Scottsdale, AZ) and Tommy Rodriguez (JR/Yucaipa, CA) knocked in Dane Nakatsuka (JR/Laguna Niguel, CA) and Cameron Hirahara (SR/Grover Beach, CA) on a pair of groundouts.
The Hawks halved the lead in the bottom half of the inning on back-to-back doubles from Jake Luther and Jalani Brown.
Zeroes dotted the scoreboard until the top of the sixth when the Lions struck for two more runs, helped along by a pair of failed pickoff attempts. Joe Johnson (SR/Medford, OR) led off with a double and went to third on an errant pickoff attempt by Schlotman. Nakatsuka drove in Johnson with an RBI single as VU took a 3-1 lead.
Nakatsuka moved to second on another pickoff attempt gone awry – and then stole third – his sixth stolen base of the season. Hirahara walked to put two runners at the corners, and Pablo Small entered in relief of Schlotman. Schlotman kept the Hawks in the game, allowing six hits and four runs (three earned) in 5.0 innings of work.
Small first batter faced was Kevin Miser, who laid down a safety squeeze bunt and got the RBI as Nakatsuka scored on the play, making it 4-1 Lions.
After surrendering the run in the second, Bixby allowed just three singles over the next four innings. He ended the fourth on a successful pickoff of Ryan Lystlund, and got Alec Arnone to ground into an inning-ending double play in the sixth.
Lystlund hit a one-out triple off Bixby in the seventh and came home on an RBI groundout to shortstop as the VU lead was cut to 4-2.
Bixby got the leadoff man in the San Diego Christian eighth but was lifted after a bunt single from Davin Burroughs. Jackson Webber (SR/Bothell, WA) entered and secured the next two outs, sitting Arnone down on a strikeout to end the inning.
Vanguard earned an insurance run in the ninth as Isaiah Lee (SR/Santa Ana, CA) tripled with one out, and came home on an opposite field single from Johnson.
Jacob Morales (JR/Arcadia, CA) pitched a clean ninth to pick up his first save and polish off the 5-2 victory.
Johnson went 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI, while Nakatsuka finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Nakatsuka has eight multi-hit games in his last nine appearances.
Game 2 – Vanguard scored first for its sixth straight game, and victimized Hawks starter Jacob Kokeny for four runs in the second in an 11-3, seven-inning win.
The big blow in the second came on a bases-clearing double from Chad Sutton. Nakatsuka and Diaz sandwiched a single and a walk around another walk to Aki Buckson (SR/Silverdale, WA), who returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench as a pinch runner in the previous six contests. Sutton posted his fourth three-RBI game of the season.
Travis Aversa (SR/Fountain Valley, CA)'s infield single plated Sutton to complete the four-run outburst.
Vanguard starter Justin Graves turned in his fourth straight quality start, going 6.0 innings with six strikeouts. He allowed just three hits and two runs (one earned).
Graves yielded an unearned run on a double play groundout in the second, and an RBI groundout to Jake Luther in the fourth. He struck out the last two hitters in the sixth before giving way to Bradley Enos (SO/Modesto, CA ) in the seventh.
The Lions put things out of reach with a three-run fourth as Buckson smashed a three-run home run to left for a 10-2 advantage. It was Buckson's second homer of the year, and his first since Feb. 4 against Marymount California.
Vanguard outhit the Hawks 10-3 in the second game, getting three more knocks from Nakatsuka, who ended up 3-for-5 with three runs scored.
Buckson went 2-for-3 with three runs and three RBI, while Aversa was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Nakatsuka finished 5-for-9 with five runs scored in the doubleheader.
Graves improved to 4-0 on the year.
Why Is It Important?: With three of Vanguard's first four conference series on the road, the Lions are off to a 2-0 start in GSAC play.
What Was Said?: "We came out ready to make some noise for our first conference series," said pitcher Jared Greer. "Solid outings from both starters and we took care of business offensively. Focusing on bringing that same intensity into tomorrow. In the words of Ricky Bobby, 'We gotta Shake N' Bake.'"
What's Next?: The Lions and Hawks conclude their series with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch in game one is slated for 11:00 a.m.
