Los Angeles, CA— The Oxy Tigers baseball team took on the Chapman Panthers in game 1 of a doubleheader at Anderson Field on Saturday.

Christian Martinez was on the mound for Oxy and he was looking sharp, keeping Panther batters off balance and missing bats early on. After two solid innings from Martinez, the Tigers got on the board first with an RBI double down the right field line from Lou Martineau that scored Thomas Munch and Jeffery Cambra.

The Tigers got another run in as Nick Gonzales had a 2 out hit that scored Martineau from 2nd base and made it 3-0 Tigers after 2 innings of play. Chapman would chip away at the lead with a solo home run in the top of the 4th that made it 3-1 at the time. 

The Panthers got within a run of the lead with another solo home run in the top of the 5th inning that made the score 3-2. Oxy would respond by scoring insurance runs in the bottom of the 7th inning thanks to a home run from Jackson Short that scored Nick Gonzalez and extended the Tiger lead to 5-2. 

In the top of the 8th inning, Chapman picked up 2 runs on a 2 out single that scored runners from 2nd and 3rd base to make it a 5-4 ballgame. Oxy would extend their lead one more time when Jeffery Cambra launched a solo home run over the left center field wall in the bottom of the 8th to make it 6-4 Oxy. 

AJ Naha was on the mound to close it out for the Tigers, throwing the 8th and 9th innings and securing the 6-4 Tiger win on a fly out to center field to end the game. The Tigers starting pitcher had a great pitching performance as Christian Martinez pitched 7 innings allowing 2 earned runs while striking out 10 batters.

Martinez picked up his first ever SCIAC win on the mound and Naha picked up his first save of the year. Jackson Short went 2 for 4 in the game including his big homer that extended the Tiger lead in the 7th inning. Jeffery Cambra also went 2 for 4 with a big home run to pad the Tiger lead, and Nicholas Gonzalez went 2 for 2 with a run and an RBI. 

The Tigers will look to win the series over Chapman by winning game 3 later Saturday afternoon.