The No. 18 California Lutheran University baseball team played a three-game series April 22-23 against the No. 8 Occidental Tigers in a battle for first place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

As it was the final three-game SCIAC series of the season represented senior day for nine Kingsmen. Senior pitchers Tyler Nevins, Landry Kiyabu and Mitchell Shields, outfielders Ramsey Abushahla and Justin Caña and infielders Davey Casciola, Chad Clark and Max Price were all honored before the game.

“In my time on the team, I have spent almost three years learning how to conduct myself on and off the field. To me they’ve taught lessons that I think only a person like a senior could,” junior outfielder Gabe Gunter said.

The first game of the day started out in Cal Lutheran’s favor with a win against the Tigers seizing a 16-6 victory.

The Kingsmen capitalized on three errors by the Tigers in the bottom of the third and scored 12 runs, sending 16 batters to the plate and collecting seven hits.

Occidental was able to score six runs in the sixth inning, but the Kingsmen responded with two runs in the eighth inning to enact the 10-run mercy rule.

Offensively, the Kingsmen were led by Clark, who had two home runs including one that cleared the scoreboard in left field.

The Kingsmen looked to take the momentum from the first game into the second.

“We were in the lead, beating them 14-0 for most of the first game but they got some good hits and carried more momentum into the second game,” Head Coach Marty Slimak said.

However the tide and mood of the second game changed during the bottom of the second inning when junior outfielder Sinjin Todd walked and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Price.

However, the Kingsmen were not able to hold on to the one-run lead, as Occidental struck with three runs of their own in the top of the fifth inning.

Cal Lutheran was able to answer back in the bottom half of the inning, starting with a  leadoff double from Price. Clark followed with an RBI single and Abushahla tied the game up at three with a double to score Clark. 

The score remained tied at the end of nine innings, sending the Kingsmen and Tigers into extra innings. The battle for first place was not one either side was willing to give up easily, with tremendous defensive plays from both teams.

The Kingsmen were threatening to score in the top of the 10th inning, with Gunter on second base and one out. Todd smoked a ball up the middle, but Occidental shortstop Reid Gibbs snagged it and made a spinning throw to first just in time to beat the speedy Todd, saving the game for the Tigers.

“This series just took a lot of mental focus and we delivered on the first game, but we had a mental lapse on the second,” Casciola said.

Occidental was able to take the momentum from Gibbs’ play into the top of the 11th, and it pushed a run across on an RBI single from freshman right fielder Jack Brancheau.

“It was a great baseball game and it’s terrible being on the losing side of an extra innings game,” Casciola said. “Its on our older guys for not stepping up in the clutch. Being a senior, this is just another day, we have more games to put our attention to.”

This was the first time the Kingsmen dropped a series to Occidental College since Slimak became head coach in 1994.

After being defeated in this series, the season is not over for Cal Lutheran as it looks ahead to the Round Robin tournament to finalize seeding for the SCIAC Tournament.

Connor McKinney
Staff Writer
Published April 27th, 2016