Men lose 3 in Cal Lu series
Campus Times
May 3, 2002
The end of the 2002 baseball season brought disappointment for the University
of La Verne team. The Leopards concluded the season losing seven of their
last eleven games, and losing all three games in the crucial series against
Cal Lu, moving their season record to 22-16, 10-8 in SCIAC.
"I really wanted to win," senior Mark Chiappelli said. "All
I could do was go out and play hard. I feel like we played hard as a whole,
but we were unable to capitalize on key situations."
The Leopards entered the Cal Lu series knowing that they had to sweep
the Kingsmen in order to stay in contention for the No. 1 spot in conference.
"I thought that the guys did a good job of preparation going into
the series," head coach Scott Winterburn said.
"I think that that showed in the games, just not in the last couple
of innings."
Game one of the series pitted the two teams against each other in Thousand
Oaks, where ULV recorded their first loss of the series, 7-3.
La Verne jumped on Cal Lu early on in game one Saturday, scoring three
runs off a homerun by Chiappelli.
However, the pitching struggles that have plagued this Leopard team,
came back to haunt them in the top of the eighth, as the Kingsmen put four
runs across home plate to squeak out the win, 8-11.
"We played all season to come down to this series," Chiappelli
said.
"We were in a position to win. We came out in all three games and
got the lead but, unfortunately, we could not hold on."
In game two, the Leopards once again captured the lead early, but could
not hold on.
The Kingsmen came back from a 4-2 deficit in the seventh to score five
runs, dealing the Leopards their third loss of the series, 7-4.
"Cal Lu capitalized on every mistake. When we made a mistake they
took it to us,"Chiappelli said.
"Any time that you are in a game and you don't win the disappointment
is magnified," Winterburn said.
The Cal Lu sweep propelled the Kingsmen into second place behind the
Pomona Pitzer Sagehens who swept the Leopards earlier in the season.
The Leopards will graduate eight seniors from this year's team, and
will try again next season for a conference title.