Leopard baseball heads to playoffs

photo by Desiree Quintero

The SCIAC champion University of La Verne baseball team brought conference play to an end by sweeping a doubleheader against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday. La Verne lost, 4-3, to CMS Friday but answered back with Saturday’s 22-10 and 9-5 victories. In game two, senior pitcher Alan Sarrail struck out 10 Stags for the win.

by Sara Lupu
Staff Writer

With a final conference series victory and a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship under its belt, the University of La Verne baseball team is looking ahead to a playoff season.

The Leopards hammered out hits to claim the series, 2-1, against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps last weekend.

After dropping the first game of the series, 4-3, on Friday, the Leopards showed up on Saturday at Ben Hines Field with a conference championship on their minds and some hits to get out of their systems.

They took both games in the doubleheader, 22-10 and 9-5, wrapping up regular season play 27-10, 15-3 in SCIAC, with its first SCIAC title in nine years.

“It’s a great feeling knowing that we have achieved the first part of our goals since we have been working towards them since September,” said junior first baseman James Ortega.

Despite the 100-degree weather Saturday, the Leopards looked cool and composed.

In the last game of the series, senior Alan Sarrail was on the mound for the full nine innings, striking out 10 batters, earning his seventh win of the season.

Sarrail was aided on the offensive end by junior catcher B.J. DuBarry and senior outfielder Daniel Soriano, who combined for seven RBIs and had two homers each on the day.

“I guess you could say I was in a little bit of a rhythm, but the leadoff batters were doing their job by getting on base so that we could score runs,” DuBarry said. “That’s what has made this team so different, the fact that everyone’s contributing and doing a couple of things well instead of counting on just one or two people to pick up the slack.”

The 9-5 victory had little comparison to the 22-10 slug-fest that the Leopards put on in the first game Saturday. With 26 hits and Leopard homeruns from Ryan Holmes, Jonathan Marty, Ortega, Soriano and an inside-the-park homerun from DuBarry, the Stags could not keep up.

“The biggest difference from Friday to Saturday’s games was we picked up our offensive intensity,” head coach Scott Winterburn said. “We had a long lay-off between games, although we almost snuck out Friday’s game, and that is going to be something we will have to overcome for playoffs.”

The Leopards will not know anything about regional playoffs until May 15.

“Our focus is to be at the peak of our game for playoffs and we are just working on the things that we do at practice and getting better at them,” Winterburn said. “The region is looking stronger than it has in years, and the winner has a great opportunity to go far in the national tournament.”

“We’re ready for this,” Ortega said. “None of us on this team have been to playoffs before and we are looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.”