LOS ANGELES — The Occidental College baseball team can swing the bat. Through 14 games, Oxy scored 108 runs and hit 14 home runs.

Good pitching beats good hitting though.

The Tigers (9-6, 4-3 SCIAC) were closer than any team's been this season to beating Pomona-Pitzer (8-3-1, 7-3 SCIAC) ace Travis Rooke-Ley, but Jake Bruml hit a solo home run to center field and the Sagehens escaped Eagle Rock with a 8-5 win in Game 1 of a three-game series.

Bruml nailed a line drive off of the batting cages just beyond the center-field wall at Anderson Field, breaking a 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth inning.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, Pomona's Ben Cohen hit a bases-clearing double, then Coleman Lukas and Erik Munzer each singled in a run, putting an otherwise close game out of reach.

Oxy strung together four singles and loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but had its rally end after three runs.

Before then, it was tight throughout and the Tigers looked like they might take the series opener from a Pomona team that's won three of the last five SCIAC championships.

Oxy scored a pair of runs in the fourth inning off of Rooke-Ley, who came into the game with a 3-0 record and 0.43 earned run average. In three SCIAC starts, the hard-throwing righty had given up just one run and had struck out 16 batters in 22 innings pitched.

Oxy's Scott Hong (Los Angeles), who has 13 extra-base hits in 14 games this season, used a combination of speed and clever base running to score the second of two Tigers' runs in the fourth.

Brent Wunner (Temple City) hit a routine ground ball to third, that forced Hong, who was on third base, to go nearly all the way back to the bag. But when Pomona-Pitzer third baseman James Campbell threw to first, Hong darted down the third-base line and dove barely underneath the tag to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

Pedro Aldape (Sherman Oaks) led off the fourth inning with a double to right, then Johnathan Brooks (Huntington Beach) brought in Aldape for the Tigers first run on a fielder's choice.

Aldape, who's been on an offensive tear as of late with two home runs and six RBIs, and Hong both went 1 for 3 on the day for the Tigers.

But the Sagehens evened the game at two in the sixth when E.J. Lopez doubled in Bruml.

The Tigers were able to get base runners a few times in the first three innings, but didn't capitalize.

Oxy threatened in the second inning. Hong walked, Brooks reached on an error, and Wunner bunted both runners into scoring position with one out. But either a miscommunication or a missed sign botched what looked like a suicide squeeze and Hong was caught stealing home. Salsedo walked, then Ozaki grounded out and Oxy couldn't get on the scoreboard.

Tyler Eyrich (Stevenson Ranch), Oxy's ace and Friday afternoon starting pitcher, was had another solid outing. The senior lefty went 7.1 innings with four strikeouts and three earned runs.

The Tigers and the Sagehens finish the series with a double header tomorrow in Claremont. The first game is at 11 a.m.

Game Notes: 

Occidental women's volleyball coach Heather Collins threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the game, part of a season-long effort to celebrate members of the Occidental community. In her first season with the Tigers, Collins led the team to the second round of the NCAA Division III postseason tournament and Oxy's first ever SCIAC tournament championship.

The Tigers are finding clever ways to join the fight against cancer. Players on the Oxy baseball squad are growing out mustaches during the month of March and accepting donations to fight the disease at home games. Later this month, they will participate in Relay for Life at Oxy's Jack Kemp Stadium.