COSTA MESA -- In the home portion of the Pacific West Conference series against Westmont, Vanguard baseball put up a tenacious fight, but the Westmont Warriors completed the sweep with 9-2 and 3-0 victories. VU dropped to 4-10 overall and 1-7 in PacWest games, while Westmont improved to 8-2, 5-2.
WC 9 VU 2
Seth Wrightstone had clean frames in the odd-number innings through five, but Westmont scored two in the top of the second and the fourth. A two-run home run did the damage in the second, and two singles, a walk, and a bunt in the fourth put the visitors ahead 4-0. The Blue and Gold got a run back for Wrightstone, as
Tristan Gallegos singled to right field to start the process in the bottom of the fourth.
Colton Perez followed his example with a similar smack to put two on with no outs, and after a sacrifice bunt,
Nathan Hellein used a sacrifice fly to cash in Gallegos.
Unfortunately, Westmont won the back end of the game, outscoring VU 5-1 over the final five innings. The Warriors got one in the top of the sixth, with an error on a grounder by the Lions putting the tally on the board. While
Angel Perez launched a home run just over the fence in the left-field corner in the bottom of the eighth, WC got a grand slam in the top of the ninth to put things away.
Westmont had nine runs on 10 hits and left seven runners on base. The Blue and Gold had two runs, seven hits, two errors, and five runners left on base. Wrightstone went six innings and fanned six, though he took the loss to drop to 1-2. All seven VU hits came from different batters.
WC 3 VU 0
The Lions had one hit in the concluding game of the series, a single by
Jaxson Davis, though the squad also had four walks that they could not take advantage of.
Braden Turner went three innings and gave up two runs on two hits, striking out one.
Tyler Prystajko followed him with one frame of work and gave up the other Westmont run.
Daniel Rivera going the final three without surrendering another hit and collecting one K.
WC scored in the top of the third on two singles and an error, while a walk and a double put the gap at 3-0 in the top of the fifth.
What's Next? The Blue and Gold begin the very staggered series with APU on the road on Wednesday, with a 5:00 p.m. tilt starting the set that spans almost three months.
