Rhiannon Mim

Guarding home plate, University of La Verne catcher Ryan Jordan attempts to tag Kean’s Joseph D’Andrea, who scored on a single. The Leopards won their first game in the California Invitational against Dominican, 11-1, but they fell short to Kean, 8-5, and then to Ithaca, 14-4, which brought their overall record to 7-9.

Taryn Aguilar
Staff Writer

Last weekend the La Verne baseball team co-hosted the California Invitational.

The Leopards played three games, winning one without problem from Dominican and losing tough battles to Kean and Ithaca.

The first game the Leopards played was against Dominican from Illinois.

ULV won without problem, 11-1.

The win was partly due to the performance of starting pitcher Mark Simmons, who pitched five shutout innings.

“When you come out and consistently throw strikes, that makes it a lot easier for the offense because there’s not so much pressure,” senior outfielder Daniel Talbot said.

ULV’s hitting also came out ready to play, scoring 11 runs in the first four innings.

In only the first inning, freshman outfielder Dimitre Mondotte hit a two-run home run to start it off and it seemed like making contact with the ball became contagious.

“Our 3-4-5 hitters are hitting the ball really well and we’re getting guys on base and that’s how you win baseball games,” senior outfielder Kyle Johnson said.

The second inning was followed by five more runs from the Leopards.
Unlike their past couple games, the Leopards were not about to get off to a slow start on this game.

In the third inning, junior outfielder Brad Licher hit his fourth home run of the season.

Licher is continuing his seven-game hitting streak and is the team leader in both hitting average and home runs.

Licher’s strong and consistent batting led him to being named SCIAC Athlete of the Week.

“It’s exciting to have that, especially when you’re winning,” Licher said. “When you’re losing, it’s not that much fun.”

The DU Stars made their one and only run of the game with a home run from Mark Higgins.

La Verne’s 13 hits are what made this game a success for the Leopards, with eight out of their nine starters getting at least one base hit.

On March 9, the Leopards went against Kean from New Jersey and proved to be a completely different game, in terms of difficulty.

ULV ended up losing, 8-5, in a struggle for the lead score which was the theme of the game.

“We need to focus on each game one at a time and not look too far ahead because every game is important,” Licher said.

In this game, the Cougars attacked first with a home run from Maikel DeLaRosa making the first inning score 2-0.

However, the Leopards fired back in the second and third innings taking the lead with a score 4-2.

Kean tied the score at 4-4 in the fifth inning when ULV made errors with runners on base.

The sixth inning is when ULV fell into the hole that they could not climb out of.

The Cougars went on a four run rally, making the score 8-4.

ULV was unable to make any more runs for two more innings with Kean’s reliever Brandon Aich, who contained ULV for one run in the final inning.

Last weekend was split for the ULV men.

But they still look to be in good shape if their bats keep making contact and they come out strong in the first couple innings.

Today, the Leopards will be in action at home against Rutgers-Newark (N.J.) starting at 2 p.m. and concluding the tournament over the weekend.

Taryn Aguilar can be reached at taguilar@ulv.edu.