Note: This Story was updated March 28 after staggered NCBWA National, Regional & PacWest Pitcher of the Week Announcements Throughout The Week*
IRVINE, Calif. –
Matthew Kaiser and the Golden Eagles baseball team will never forget the Saturday they played nationally-ranked Westmont and beat them twice behind a pair of dominant pitching performances.
Kaiser pitched the first career no-hitter for Concordia in the NCAA DII era in a resounding 17-0 victory over the fourth-ranked Warriors. Teaming with catcher
Vito Fowler behind the dish, Kaiser calmly struck out nine batters and allowed only three walks over seven strong innings of work.
"Having trust in the guys behind me and in the dugout is what really got me in my groove," explained Kaiser. "Having their support both on offense and defense allowed me to settle and lock in on my part with great help from Vito. Having a catcher like Vito makes it easy to be confident as the trust I have in him is beyond enough to be comfortable."
Kaiser racked up weekly awards on three different days after his memorable outing. On Tuesday, he was named DII Regional Pitcher of the Week by the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and then on Thursday afternoon, he was named
NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week!
Fittingly, Kaiser was also named PacWest Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
Kaiser's strong outing was actually the second of two impressive performances by members of the CUI pitching staff against one of the best DII baseball teams in the country on Saturday.
Game 1: CUI 5, No. 4 Westmont 3
All-American right-hander
Jake Covey was nothing to sneeze at this weekend either. The senior tossed a complete game himself in the first game of the day against Westmont. He struck out eight batters in nine innings, allowed just seven hits and only three runs (two earned) on his way to improving to 5-1.
It's his second straight victory and complete game against a Top 20 team in the country.
Covey helped CUI top No. 15 Point Loma last weekend at home.
Covey has already been named PacWest Pitcher of the Week twice this season and has now pitched three complete games in his first seven starts. Remarkably, Covey has struck out at least eight batters in six of those seven outings.
"After another heartbreaking loss in game two yesterday, it was nice to have one of the Top D2 pitchers in the country in game one today to get us off the mat," added CUI head coach Joe Turgeon.
Offensively, CUI scraped a couple runs together with productive outs to go up 2-0 entering the fourth inning. Then in that frame, Hawaiian natives
Kaipo Haole and
Haku Dudoit each contributed RBI singles and
Nicolas Erickson added a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 5-0.
Isaiah Walz led the way with three hits in the matinee.
Game 2: CUI 17, No. 4 Westmont 0
In addition to Kaiser's memorable performance on the mound, the CUI offense turned it up a notch by jumping on the board early and often in the series finale.
The Golden Eagles scored at least once in all seven innings – and the first six CUI batters in the lineup each finished with at least two hits or more.
Landry Spitler had a career-high five hits,
Niko Santamaria collected a career-best 4 RBI, and
Wyatt Madison and
Isaiah Walz each went 3-for-5 at the plate.
"The offense jumped out to an early lead for Kaiser and he was able to jump out in counts and ultimately get early outs," said Coach Turgeon. "When you throw a no-hitter a lot has to go right. You have to be in the right position defensively on some of those squared up balls and make plays. A total team effort but Matthew was lights out. Very proud of him, very proud of Fowler for catching a great game and just glad we could all be a part of it."
This is only the second no-hitter in Concordia baseball program history. Former Houston Astros draft pick and minor leaguer Keegan Yuhl first accomplished the rare feat
back in 2014 during the school's NAIA days.
CLICK HERE to see more pictures of Kaiser and his catcher Vito Fowler after the no-hitter was complete.
This was also the first time all season that Westmont baseball had been shutout. The Warriors had entered the day an astounding 19-1 in conference play.
Concordia improved to 11-15 overall, 9-13 in the PacWest standings. Westmont fell to 24-5 with a 19-3 conference mark.
ON DECK
Up next for the Golden Eagles is a home-and-away four-game series with Azusa Pacific.
CUI hosts the Cougars this Friday, March 28 for a conference doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. Then on Saturday, APU will host the Green and Gold with the first of those two games starting at 2 p.m. as well.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI baseball schedule
