by J.R. Gonsalves
Assistant Sports Editor
Baseball is a game where errors should not be a regularity.
At La Verne, errors seem to come too often. In the Leopards 15-2 defeat at the hands of Redlands last Friday, the La Verne baseball team made three costly errors.
Redlands opened the game with two straight singles and a three-run home run. Then starter Maynard McClarrinon was able to get out of the inning without any more damage.
“The pitchers have to get ahead of the hitters and throw a strike,” said sophomore center-fielder Andrew Woolsey.
The top of the second went much the same as the top of the first. After a lead off single by Redlands, La Verne’s wild pitch allowed a run to score. Redlands finished the inning with one more run and the Leopards were down by one.
“We got off to a rocky start and we never settled down,” said junior pitcher Matt Johnson, one of the Leopards’ starters.
The Leopards only had one inning, the top of the third, where Redlands did not manage a hit.
The Leopards also only had one inning where they had runners in scoring position who scored. That inning was the bottom of the fifth when Woolsey singled, scoring junior third basemen Armando Hernandez. from second base.
Nothing sat well with the Leopards on Friday, but on the following day, ULV split the doubleheader with Redlands. Losing the first game, 7-5, and winning the second, 8-7.
“We did salvage one game of the doubleheader, but I would have liked to have won them both, because Redlands will be a playoff contender this season,” said head coach Owen Wright.
In game one, Redlands put the game away in the late innings when they scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth.
The Leopards started the game with a two run lead after one. Then Redlands came back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second. La Verne scored two more runs in the third and added another in the fifth.
When all was said and done Redlands had scored seven runs after being behind by three and took the first game, 7-5.
The Leopards won the second game 8-7 but not before Redlands scored four runs in the final four innings.
Freshman pitcher Mario Chaffino came in during the top of the sixth and pitched a solid three innings but got into trouble during the eighth, and the game was finished by junior pitcher Justin Dospital.
Hernandez got the win and Dospital got the save, as the Leopards avoided the three game sweep.
The Leopards’ next game is today at 2:30 p.m. at Occidental. La Verne hosts the Tigers in a doubleheader tomorrow at 11 a.m.
