Baseball wins 1, drops 3 in tournament
Campus Times
March 20, 1998
It was a tremendous defeat and a terrible struggle, as the University
of La Verne Leopards played a four-game tournament this past weekend and
unfortunately landed in fourth place.
La Verne played three teams in the tournament: Menlo, Whittier and Montclair
State University. Though the Leopards proved victorious in the first game
Saturday against Menlo, they lost the remaining three games.
First, La Verne had an amazing game that turned out to be an 11-3 win.
In the top of the sixth inning, the Leopards looked quite shabby, as
Menlo scored its only three runs, making the score 8-3 at that point. But
mighty La Verne came back in the bottom of the sixth, scoring an additional
three runs by juniors Juston Dospital, Garren Injijian and Vince Zavala.
Sophomore pitcher Seth Halverson said, "We hit the ball well and
our pitching came through."
But La Verne fell and lost the remaining three games, starting with
their first loss against Whittier, 6-2.
As sophomore pitcher Sean Glaze started for the Leopards, Whittier scored
five runs before La Verne finally ended the top of the first.
In the bottom of the first inning, Whittier freshman pitcher Michael
Despain walked Zavala and Injijian, while senior shortstop Lyle Miller remained
on third base, and Dospital came in to score one run for the Leopards.
The majority of the game were 1-2-3 innings, and the only other run
scored by the Poets was a homerun hit by senior shortstop Paul Magallanes.
The last run for La Verne came in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Dospital
had an RBI and Miller scored. Whittier had defeated the Leopards.
On Sunday, La Verne played Montclair State University and lost by a
long shot.
In the top of the fourth, La Verne was trailing the Redhawks, 4-2, but
came back strong in the bottom of the inning, 4-3.
A line drive double down the third baseline by Glaze moved sophomore
left fielder Andrew Davis to third base. Then, Glaze advanced to third and
Davis scored on a wild pitch, and sophomore center fielder Andrew Woolsey
had a basehit and brought in Glaze. The score was tied at 4-4 in the fourth.
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC)
rule is that baseball tournament games are played seven innings. So, the
Leopards and Redhawks played nine innings to settle things.
It was the top of the eighth inning and senior pitcher Maynard McClarrinon
was taken out of the game when the Redhawks scored an additional run. Dospital
came in to release McClarrinon and sophomore David La Peer was the new catcher.
Another run was scored by Montclair before La Verne closed the eighth inning.
The Leopards never scored in the bottom of the eighth and what came next
was pure shock.
La Verne kept switching pitchers, first freshman Mario Chaffino, then
Halverson. The Redhawks scored seven more runs and directly following that,
La Verne made an immediate three outs. The final score of the third game
was 13-4, Redhawks.
As if it could not get any worse, the Leopards played the Poets again,
this time for third place in the tournament.
La Verne started off strong again, scoring the first two runs in the
bottom of the first by Dospital and junior second baseman Justin Ott. By
the fourth inning, they let the lead go, and the Poets scored their first
two runs, making the score 4-2.
"The second game against Whittier we let down in almost every aspect
of the game. The drive to come back after the runs they scored never came
back," said Woolsey.
Whittier came back in the seventh inning, causing the game to be a nine
inning turn out. The remaining innings, the Poets continued to score and
the end result was a disappointing win over the Leopards 11-7.
"We constantly keep shooting ourselves in the foot, which means,
we keep making the same mistakes over and over again," said head coach
Owen Wright.
La Verne is now 5-15 overall and 4-8 in SCIAC.
Wright said, "You know, I don't doubt that God may be a she because
God blessed me with the 1995 championship victory and now, God has made
me humble, but I'm glad that he or she has."
The Leopards play in the West Coast Classic tournament this weekend.
