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Box Score 2 LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Black and Orange stepped out of Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play for a weekend of nonconference action. On Saturday morning the Tigers faced the Big Red from Denison, falling 6-0 to the squad from Granville, Ohio. In the second game Oxy switched uniforms and was the visiting squad when they faced off against Rutgers-Newark. The Raiders from New Jersey also held the Tigers scoreless, taking the second game of the twin bill 4-0.
In the opener, the Big Red opened with a leadoff homer against starting pitcher Ross Pomerantz. Denison picked up another run in the top half of the first to go ahead 2-0.
Three innings later the squad from Ohio tacked on another run in the top of the fourth, again in the sixth and finally two more in the top of the ninth to finish off the 6-0 win.
The Tigers on the other end had trouble connecting at the plate, collecting only five hits on the day, with the sixth inning being the only time they had two hits in any inning. But a leadoff single by Dale Garrett to open the inning and possibly ignite a rally was extinguished when the next Tiger up grounded into a double play. Riley Smith followed up the double play with a single to left center and a stolen base, but was left stranded on second when the final batter of the inning grounded out to short.
Denison (6-6) received eight strong innings from Nick Smith who picked up the win. Pomerantz went seven innings, taking the loss, to drop his overall record to 3-5.
A little over ninety minutes later Oxy was back on the field against the Scarlet Raiders but again could not muster much offense.
After back to back scoreless innings, Rutgers-Newark struck first in the top of the third, loading the bases with no outs but Tiger hurler Cory Popham almost worked his way out of the jam by first forcing a pop up to short left center and then striking out the next batter. But with two down the New Jersey squad connected on a shot up the middle to score one runner and a bobbled tag at home plate allowed a second run to score.
In the bottom half of the sixth and seventh the Scarlet Knights added a run in each to forge a 4-0 lead.
Oxy scattered four hits throughout the ball game, but had their best scoring opportunity in the top of the third. Loading the bases with two down by sandwiching two walks around a hit batter, but a pop up to third ended the threat and inning.
Rutgers-Newark (5-6) picked up a complete game win from Connor Medler. Popham (1-4) picked up the loss after working 6.2 innings. Mitch Margolis and Brooks Belter combined for 1.1 innings of shutout relief for the Tigers (8-13).
Oxy will finish up the weekend with two more games on Sunday, March 20th, with a 9:30am game against Ithaca College and then to close out the day a 2:30pm match up with Carleton College.
