SportsBaseball

Leopards maul Tigers 9-5, 10-0

Sliding into second, La Verne’s Lucas Berry steals the base as Ithaca’s Marty O’Boyle attempts to bring the inning to a close. The Leopards defeated the Bombers 5-3 on Wednesday at the home game, making it their ninth win this season. / photo by Yelena Ovcharenko
Sliding into second, La Verne’s Lucas Berry steals the base as Ithaca’s Marty O’Boyle attempts to bring the inning to a close. The Leopards defeated the Bombers 5-3 on Wednesday at the home game, making it their ninth win this season. / photo by Yelena Ovcharenko

Jonathan Corral
Staff Writer

After the recent rainstorms rained out Friday’s contest, the University of La Verne baseball team returned to the diamond in impressive fashion, sweeping Occidental with scores of 9-5 and 10-0 in a doubleheader Saturday at Ben Hines Field.

With the sweep, the Leopards improved their overall record to 10-2 and a 6-1 mark in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, which puts them in a tie with Cal Lutheran for the top spot.

Last year the Leopards ran away with the conference title, their first since 1995.

“Our goal each and every year is to win the conference,” head coach Scott Winterburn said. “Right now we are in great shape, we just have to continue to take one game at a time and play our game.”

The Leopards used dominating performances on both the pitching and hitting sides in their shutout victory in game two of the doubleheader.

Starter Scott Lindeen provided the firepower on the mound, pitching six strong innings, striking out 10 batters and only allowing two hits. For his efforts, Lindeen was named SCIAC Athlete of the Week.

Relievers Jim Wilfong and Kyle Darg continued the great pitching with no-hit baseball in the final 2 1/3 innings. Lindeen earned the win, improving his record to 4-1 on the season with a 0.57 earned run average.

“I just wanted to pitch the best that I could,” Lindeen said. “Every pitch was working for me today and I had some great defense behind me. This is just one game, though. We have to keep taking it one game at a time.”

Being shut out for the first three innings, the Leopard bats awoke in a fury, knocking out 10 runs on 13 hits in the final five innings. Third baseman Jason Jarvis led the way, finishing the day going 3-for-4 with three RBI’s.

Other key contributors to the attack were Kyle Johnson, who completed a 2-for-3 day with a home run, two runs scored and an RBI. Colby Jamar and Lucas Berry also chipped in with two hits apiece.

“Our offense really stepped it up today and against a good team,” Jarvis said. “This victory is a great stepping stone to winning the conference.”

With more intensity than game two, game one was a nail-biter as both teams traded blow after blow heading into the bottom of the fourth. The Leopards scored three runs in the inning, taking control of the game and never looking back.

Once again the Leopards received strong pitching performances, this time from sophomore Mark Simmons (2-1). Simmons recorded the victory after pitching seven strong innings, giving up two earned runs on five hits, while striking out nine Tiger batters.

Offensively, the Leopards were led by shortstop Ryan Holmes who finished the game 2-4 with one RBI. Jonathan Marty and B.J. DuBarry also contributed with one hit and two RBIs respectively.

The Leopards return to action this weekend when they go head to head with Kean before heading to the Cal Classic Tournament.

Jonathan Corral can be reached at jcorral@ulv.edu.

Jonathan Corral
Other Stories Bio
Yelena Ovcharenko
Other Stories Bio
Previous article
University hosts awareness week
Next article
Cartoons introduce kids to opera

Latest Stories

Related articles

Baseball

New minor league team touches down in Ontario

The Ontario Tower Buzzers held their weekly Family Sunday event Aug. 23 at ONT Field.
Baseball

Baseball and softball end seasons at SCIAC tournament

The baseball and softball teams both saw their seasons end last weekend in their respective Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournaments.
Baseball

Leopards sweep Senior Day doubleheader, head to SCIAC tournament

The Leopards dominated during their Senior Day doubleheader against Redlands at Ben Hines Field on Saturday, bouncing back from a series-opening loss to the Bulldogs on May 1. Game one’s final score was 9-2, and game two's score was 6-2.
Baseball

Leopards earn walk-off win over Chapman

A walk-off error gave the Leopards the win over the Chapman Panthers, 8-7, in their series opener April 24 at Ben Hines Field.