The California Lutheran University baseball team, ranked No. 2 in the nation, swept the Linfield Wildcats at Ullman Stadium, 13-5 in the first game and 8-5 in the second game, improving from their loss Friday night.

“Yesterday, we had a lot of errors, so the biggest thing was to clean that up and play good defense today,” said sophomore infielder Ryne Yamashiro.

The Kingsmen started off strong in the second game, making the game scoreless for the first four innings, until junior outfielder Jeff Wilson singled allowing Yamashiro and senior outfielder Alec Iniguez to score.

However, the Wildcats came right back tying the game 3-3 in the top of the fourth. But the Kingsmen didn’t hesitate to take back the lead in the bottom of the inning with Yamashiro, freshman infielder Tanner Wright and junior first baseman Weston Clark ,all recording an RBI.

“We just tried to limit our mistakes, work on what we practiced on and not get too antsy in the field. And just know that we are solid baseball players on the field and kind of stay calm and just do what we do best,” said senior pitcher Derek Galvin. 

Sophomore pitcher Troy Frazier started on the mound for the Kingsmen with a  four inning outing against the Wildcats. Frazier was able to hold the opponents scoreless until the fourth inning. Senior pitcher Jeff Rebello entered the game for Frazier with the Kingsmen leading 3-2 in the top of the fifth. Rebello got back-to-back strikeouts with runners in scoring position.    

The violet and gold rallied in the bottom of the sixth inning with Clark once again recording a RBI, allowing Iniguez to score, making the game 6-3. However, in the top of seventh inning, Wildcats senior infielder Ryan Ross doubled to right-center, allowing senior infielder Joey Cassano and sophomore catcher Ayden Allen to score, tightening the game to 6-5.

The Kingsmen didn’t let this constrain them, with Wilson scoring on a passed ball in the bottom of the seventh and junior infielder Anthony Sidley who stole home, making the score 8-5.

“Our execution today was pretty good at the plate, but we need to just keep getting better and work on locating our pitches as a staff and making sure we are in tip-top shape every single weekend,” Galvin said. 

Sophomore pitcher Christian Slattery entered the game for junior pitcher Justin Fong in the top of the eighth inning, closing the game and securing the win over the Wildcats.

“The bigger picture is to win as many games as you can. It all starts with practice, how we practice and how well we practice. It’s just doing the little things, but I think we played well this weekend, but there’s a lot we can improve on like defense and two strike hitting,” Yamashiro said.

The Cal Lutheran Kingsmen (2-1) will travel to Tucson, Arizona to play the University of Texas-Dallas in the first game Friday, Feb. 9 at 4 p.m.

Marissa McCardell
Reporter