Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 By Michael Wells
Sports Information Director
LOS ANGELES — Despite not playing its best baseball all series, the Occidental College baseball team was one play away from erasing an eight-run deficit and avoiding a weekend sweep.
Scott Hong (Los Angeles), Oxy's do-it-all star outfielder who had already hit a solo home run and a two-run double to help the Tigers crawl back into the game, was just 90 feet away from tying it up.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Chris Strain (Bellevue, Wash.) lifted a soft fly ball to shallow left center. It was going to be a bang-bang play all the way, but Hong, the SCIAC leader in stolen bases, tagged third and darted for home.
Tyler Boggart caught the ball cleanly and made a perfect throw to the plate, nailing Hong in plenty of time for the last out in a 10-9 win in the third game of the series, and the second of a doubleheader at Anderson Field on Saturday.
Oxy (17-15, 12-9 SCIAC) lost to the Poets (16-15, 10-11 SCIAC) 4-3 in Game 1, a defeat that wasn't easy to swallow either. The Tigers took a 3-1 lead into the eighth, then Josh Genzuk hit a two-RBI singled that evened the score at three and eventually sent the game into extra innings.
In the top of the 10th, Corey Jensen singled in Pete Mitchell for the go-ahead run, then the Tigers went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half for the loss, 4-3.
"The only thing we can do is get back to work on Monday," Occidental coach Luke Wetmore said. "We have been talking all year about putting ourselves in a position to win ball games and that doesn't change regardless of how you played yesterday, your record, or you place in the conference standings."
Oxy finally looked like the team that swept Claremont-Mudd-Scripps last weekend during the final four innings of Game 2, with some important contributions coming from unlikely suspects.
Senior Casey Harms (Fair Oaks) started and went 2 for 4, and John Ugai came up big with a three-run homer that sparked the first wave of Oxy's comeback in the sixth.
"We got a much needed spark from some guys that have not had many opportunities this year," Wetmore said. "Casey had a great day and (Ugai) gave us a shot in the arm with that pinch hit home run. It's great to see those guys have success."
Logan Allen (Atascadero) went 3 for 9 with two doubles, three runs and an RBI on the day for the Tigers.
Oxy's Pedro Aldape (Sherman Oaks), the SCIAC leader in RBIs coming into the weekend (26), picked up three more and went 3 for 9 on Saturday.
Five games out of first, with just one round robin through the seven-game SCIAC schedule left to play, it's not likely that the Tigers will be hanging their first SCIAC championship banner since 1982. But they are in line for their best season in recent memory.
The Tigers start the singles round hosting Pomona-Pitzer at 3 p.m. on April 13.
"I have no doubt we'll be ready to go on Friday," Wetmore said.
