IRVINE, Calif. – The Concordia University Irvine baseball team swept Friday's doubleheader against Point Loma Nazarene, improving to 7-7 on the season and moving into second
place in the PacWest
southern pod.
Senior Brett Vansant turned in his best start of the season on the mound, going 8.0 innings while only surrendering two earned runs on seven hits. His dominant performance gave the Eagles' offense the green light, culminating in 10 runs on nine hits. In the fourth inning, catcher Tony Garcia III hit a solo home run to right field, his first of the season. After a two-run single by Haloa Dudoit in the sixth inning, the Eagles took a commanding 9-0 lead. Seniors Matt Lautz and Cooper Moore also turned in mulit-performances
en route to the win. Alex Zalasky would finish the game on the mound, securing the 10-2 victory over the Sea Lions.
Game 2 was a thriller, as the Eagles battled the entire game to come away with the walk-off win. After falling behind 4-0 in the third inning, CUI was able to score two runs on a wild pitch and a
Jair Donovan RBI single, cutting the lead in half. In the top of the fifth, PLNU hit a 3-run home run to extend their lead to 8-2. Despite only two innings remaining in the game, the Eagles were not ready to throw in the towel as
Matt Lautz hit a 3-run oppo taco to right field, scoring Dudoit and
Derek Delgado. The score would remain 8-5 going into the bottom of the seventh, until
Jair Donovan stung a double to right center to score Lautz from first base. With Donovan on base, senior
Bailey Collins walked up to the plate looking to do damage. On the first pitch of the at-bat, he smacked the ball off the batter's eye in dead center field for a 2-run home run, tying the game and electrifying the CUI dugout.
"I was just trying to look for something over the plate . . . The first one caught a little bit of the white and so I tried to put a good swing on it." – Bailey Collins
Nathan Benefeito followed the home run with a single and a stolen base, putting himself in position to score the winning run. Two batters later, freshman
Xavier Gonzalez hit a ball through the right side, scoring Benefeito, and giving CUI their first walk-off win of the season.
"I had Coach Turgeon come up to me on deck and say you're going to be the guy to hit it. So, in my mind I was like I just have to keep it simple. . . Then he threw that fastball outside and I banged it." - Xavier Gonzalez
The Eagles look to take two more from the Sea Lions in tomorrow's doubleheader in San Diego, CA.
"Good teams win games, great teams sweep. We're going for two tomorrow." – Bailey Collins
CLICK HERE for the full 2021 CUI baseball schedule.
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