Baseball suffers disappointing loss to Redlands

by Amanda Stutevoss
Sports Editor

First place is out of reach for the University of La Verne men's baseball team this season, but a second-place finish could still do the job.

The Leopards knew going into their conference match up this past weekend against the Redlands University Bulldogs, that a win was the only guarantee to post-season play.

However, the Bulldogs were not going to let the Leopards walk away with three.

After an impressive win Friday on Ben Hines Field, 8-4, and a win in game two of the series 16-9, the Leopards pitching staff shut down surrendering game three to the Bulldogs.

"It was a complete lack of aggression," head coach Scott Winterburn said.

Sophomore Justin Van Duyne started for the Leopards on the mound, and was strong through two innings.

A change in the umpire's strike zone caused problems for the sophomore pitcher as he was unable to adjust, which sparked the Bulldog offense as they scored 5 runs on 4 hits and took the lead, 5-0.

However, the Leopards answered back in the fourth scoring two runs on a double from junior Ray Podesta and singles from senior Mark Chiappelli, junior Joe Garcia and red-shirt freshman James Ortega, yet the Leopards left the bases loaded at the end of the inning.

The Leopard defense held the Bulldogs through the bottom of the fourth, and took over in the top of the fifth, with a two-run homerun from Podesta and a single to center field from Garcia, tying the game at 5 apiece.

Another Leopards pitching change would occur in the bottom of the fifth and bring in sophomore Scott Lindeen, after the Bulldogs scored two runs off of Leopards pitcher Sergio Villalobos.

The Leopards offense was at it again in the top of the sixth with a leadoff single from John Doak to left field, which was followed by another single from Podesta. The inning concluded with an error, a walk, and a pass ball, which allowed the Leopards to tally up 3 more runs, putting them ahead, 8-7, which would be the last time the Leopards saw the lead.

Yet another pitching change occurred in the bottom of the sixth after Lindeen gave up 4 hits and 4 runs, while the defense behind him surrendered two errors.

The pitching change brought in senior Aaron Rodrigues, who struck out 1 and gave up one hit and a run.

Two more pitching changes and five more runs would end the game with the Bulldogs on top, 17-11.

"I think that our bullpen has done a great job all year of being aggressive on the mound," Winterburn said. "Saturday our bullpen just was not aggressive, and that is what hurt us."

"Anytime that a team scores 11 runs and you lose it is not the offenses fault," Lindeen said. "The pitching staff has been sharp in previous games, and this game the pitching staff just came out flat."

"Our team came out flat. I knew from throwing the first game that these guys were capable of putting the bat on the ball," sophomore pitcher Alan Sarrail said.

The loss to Redlands moves the Leopards down to third in conference behind Pomona-Pitzer, who swept the Leopards earlier this season and is undefeated in conference play, and Cal Lutheran, whom the Leopards will meet in their last conference match-up in two weeks. The loss also leaves them out of contention for first place.

However, if the Leopards sweep Occidental and Cal Lutheran, they could still place second and could be eligible for a pool seed bid to go to regionals.

"There is no time to be sad. We need to go right back to practice thinking about our next opponent," Winterburn said.

The Leopards will take on the Tigers at 3 p.m. today at Occidental. They will be back at home at 11 a.m. Saturday for a doubleheader on Ben Hines Field.