by Greg MacDonald
Sports Director
For the first time this season, the University of La Verne baseball team holds a four-game winning streak – but three of those four victories were at the hands of Caltech this past weekend.
The Leopards (9-27 overall and 7-14 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) scored a total of 60 runs in the three-game sweep over the Beavers while allowing only 16. ULV sent Caltech home with scores of 25-9, 4-3 and 31-4.
The surge of positive momentum comes right before the season-ending University of California, San Diego tournament, the Triton Classic, where ULV will face UCSD, a team the Leopards defeated 7-5 on April 22, Chapman, which dropped La Verne 12-0 on Feb. 25, and Menlo, which fell to the Leopards 11-3 on March 14.
“We could do fairly well,” ULV head coach Owen Wright said. “[The tournament] is an accumulation of the season for us.”
The close call for ULV against Caltech nearly ended in defeat, as the Leopards had to score three runs in the final two innings to earn the come-from-behind win.
“The whole situation is that La Verne has never lost a game to Caltech,” Wright said. “Our games have never been close. Caltech has only won one game in conference, so it was getting pretty scary.”
With one out, senior second baseman Lyle Miller was hit by a pitch. Miller stole second base and scored later in the game when junior right fielder Garren Injijian singled him in.
In the top of the ninth inning, sophomore Seth Halverson set the Caltech batters down in order.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth, sophomore pinch-hitter Gary Griffith reached base on a Caltech error.
After third baseman Brian Misawa, who went 2-for-4 in the game, struck out attempting to bunt, junior second baseman Justin Ott singled on a hit-and-run play, allowing the winning run, freshman pinch-runner Manuel Beruman, to score when the Caltech outfielder overthrew third base and into the dugout.
“Justin Ott executed that [hit-and-run play] to perfection,” Wright said.
Halverson, who pitched three hitless innings and struck out four, picked up the win and evened his record to 1-1.
“I never knew if we were going to pull it out or not,” said Wright, whose team responded in the final game of the series with a 10-run first inning.
Altogether, the Leopards finished off the Beavers 31-4 to complete the three-game sweep.
“I don’t like to score 31 runs,” Wright said of the blowout. “We left the pitchers, who don’t take batting practice, in to hit. So we were actually trying to make outs.”
Miller had a big game, going 3-for-6 with four RBI and three runs scored, including a home run and a double. The Leopards, as a team, pounded out 11 extra base hits (five doubles, four triples and two home runs).
La Verne plays Chapman at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the opening round of the Triton Classic. The Leopards then play UC San Diego at 2 p.m. On Sunday, ULV plays Menlo at 10 a.m.
