IRVINE, Calif. – The CUI baseball team dropped both games of Saturday's doubleheader, falling to 17-15-1 on the season. Since the series was a non-conference matchup, Concordia maintains an 11-5 record in PacWest play, currently sitting third in the standings behind PLNU and APU (both 9-3).
Game 1: CUI 0, APU 1
The Green & Gold pitching staff dealt in the first game of the doubleheader, only allowing one run to score.
Starting pitcher
Mason Metcalfe gave CUI a solid start on the mound, allowing one earned run in 5.1 innings on 92 pitches. Metcalfe earned his first loss of the season to fall to a record of 4-1. The redshirt junior had been coming off of four consecutive starts earning a win, including a complete game against
Hawaii Hilo on March 15th.
Jorge Arellano and
Matt Des Marets pitched in relief, not allowing a single hit in the final 3.2 innings of the game to give the Eagle offense a fighting chance.
After not being able to score on five hits in the series opener, the Eagle bats ran into the same issue in game one on Saturday by scoring zero runs on three hits.
Richard Castro collected a single and a double in the game for his sixth multi-hit game of the season. Catcher
Kevin Fowler recorded the other hit, improving his team-leading batting average to .359 on the season.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, that lone run was enough for the Cougars to claim the victory.
Game 2: CUI 3, APU 5 (7 innings)
CUI was given another excellent performance by their starting pitcher in game two of the doubleheader, this time by
Riley O'Sullivan. The sophomore struck out five batters in 5.2 innings on the mound, while also allowing five hits and one earned run. All three starters in the series gave Concordia a good chance to win, with each going at least 5.0 innings and none giving up more than two earned runs in their outing.
In the top of the second inning, APU got on the board first due to an errant throw on a sacrifice bunt, allowing the runner to score from second base. Two batters later, the Cougars would cash in again with a sacrifice fly to left field, giving them a two-run lead.
With the score still 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the Eagles were able to pull off some two-out magic. After the first two batters of the inning got out,
Jackson Collins doubled to left center field to put a man in scoring position for the second time in the game.
Dante Catalino then walked to put runners on first and second. With a full count,
Tristan Hanoian ripped a bullet down the right field line to score Collins on an RBI double.
After a scoreless top of the sixth,
Calvin Schonebaum led off the bottom of the inning with a missile to right field for his third home run of the season. This tied the game at 2-2.
In the top of the seventh, APU tacked on three more runs with a clutch double and a 2-run home run to dead center field, giving them a 3-run lead.
CUI was able to push across one more in the final frame of the game when
Alex Moreno singled through the right side, scoring
Nathan Benefeito. With the tying run on first and two outs, the Cougars were able to shut the door on a called third strike to complete the series sweep.
Concordia will return to conference play with a series against Biola starting on Friday, April 8
th, on the road in La Mirada. They will then return home on Saturday, April 9
th, with a doubleheader at Eagles Field beginning at 2:00 PM.
Click HERE for the 2022 Baseball Schedule
