The California Lutheran University Kingsmen baseball team (27-13) sent its seniors into the sunset on top, capturing a home victory against Pacific University (OR) (17-18) 8-4 on Sunday, May 4. 

Before the game, 11 senior Kingsmen, two pitchers and nine position players, were honored in the annual Senior Day ceremony. Each senior, accompanied by family and donning “Student-Athlete” stoles, had their names called to be greeted by coaches and teammates and for a photo at home plate. 

“Really thrilled and happy for all those guys. I mean, 11 people is a huge senior class, and all 11 have left their impact on the program,” Head Baseball Coach Erik Scherer said. 

The Boxers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the first being unearned due to a Kingsmen error. In the bottom of the first, sophomore left fielder Jona Dawson led off with a double to right-center field, getting the Kingsmen on the board a few batters later on a wild pitch. 

The Boxers led off the second inning with a pop fly in the infield, which the Kingsmen dropped. Two batters later, the Boxers extended their lead with an RBI single. 

Senior shortstop Josh Quinn led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run to left field to cut the Kingsmen’s deficit to 4-2. 

In the bottom of the sixth, after Quinn got hit by a pitch and stole second, senior first baseman Sebastian Smith singled him in to make it 4-3 Boxers. 

One inning later, the Kingsmen had the bases loaded and one out when senior center fielder Alec Garcia singled up the middle to score two runs and give them their first lead of the game. Senior right fielder Lucas Danielewicz followed with an RBI single to center, extending the Kingsmen’s lead to 6-4. 

In the bottom of the eighth, the Kingsmen scored another run on a wild pitch, to make the score 7-4. 

In the top of the ninth, the Kingsmen allowed two to reach base with one out; however, a strikeout and a flyout got Cal Lutheran out of the jam to secure the victory. 

The Kingsmen finished the season fourth in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. 

The Kingsmen won 10 out of 12 of their three-game series’ this season and went the entire season without being swept. The two teams to which the Kingsmen dropped two out of three games include No. 20 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer.

The Kingsmen will host the Redlands University Bulldogs on Wednesday, May 7 in the first round of the SCIAC tournament. 

“We just talked about, ‘Hey, this one feels really good because we got a chance to win on our field on Senior Day.’ I said, ‘We win that game on Wednesday, it’s gonna feel a whole lot better,’” Scherer said.