ORANGE, Calif. (March 21, 2010) – There is a reason that the Chapman University baseball team is ranked No. 7 in the nation, but a young Occidental College Tigers' squad hung tough again on Sunday, falling 5-2 in the end at Hart Park.

The difference in the game was a pair of homeruns from Panthers' first baseman Matt Luzar and catcher Joe Lehman, who each had two homeruns in the series.

Luzar put the Panthers on the board in the second and a Tigers' error allowed another run to cross the plate in the third to give the home team a 2-0 lead.

Occidental quickly erased that deficit and knotted the game up at 2-2 in the fifth. Designated hitter Stephen Hilliarddrove in both Daniel KelleyandJacob Leewho had reached on a lead-off walk and a single, respectively.

Tied at 2-2, Lehman then connected for a lead-off home run in the bottom of the sixth, which was ultimately the CU game-winner.

Andrew Millian got the start for Oxy, but went just 2.2 innings before handing the ball over to junior southpaw Ross Pomerantz who was tagged with the loss. Each pitcher struck out a pair. Brooks Belter came on in the ninth and retired one by way of strike out.

Chapman freshman Travis McGee was the winning pitcher and Ben Levitt came in to throw two perfect innings for his first save of the season.

Occidental (7-15, 4-8 SCIAC) returns to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action on Friday when they travel to Pomona-Pitzer (17-5, 11-1) to play the league leading Sagehens for a single game at 3:00 p.m.

Article by: Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director