It was a defensive duel at George “Sparky” Anderson field March 23, as the Kingsmen of California Lutheran University fell by a score of 2-1 against Pomona-Pitzer College in game one of their three game series.

Nate Wehner would take the mound for the Kingsmen and his counterpart would be Tyler Yoshihara, who came into the game undefeated on the year in conference play.

The two pitchers battled it out for majority of the game, as there were no runs scored in the first five innings for either team.

“We pitched really well. We pitched them basically inning for inning. We played great defense but we just didn’t hit,” Head Coach Marty Slimak said.

The Sagehens were able to get it going in the top of the 6^th with a double into left field, and followed that up with a single to put runners on first and third.

Wehner walked the bases loaded, and later walked a runner home, which gave the Sagehens a 1-0 lead in the top of the 6^th.

“My job on the mound is to keep runs off the board. Unfortunately, that guy pitched a little bit better than I did today,” Wehner said.

The Kingsmen were able to also get their offense going in the 6^th, but had a runner picked off at first. A strikeout to ended the inning before the Kingsmen were able to put any runs on the board.

“That’s mistakes on our part. When you have opportunities you just cannot get picked off,” Slimak said.

Both teams saw much of the same following the 6^th. The Sagehens and Kingsmen were able to get runners in scoring position, but ultimately unable to bring them home.

The top of the 9^th brought more changes to the scoreboard as Pomona-Pitzer strung together a few hits, and were able to bring a runner home with a single through the right field gap to make the score 2-0 going into the bottom of the inning.

Freshman Tanner Wright got the rally going in the final inning with a single to right, “I stayed patient. I let the pitcher come to me, and I just try to work good at bats when I can,” Wright said.

A wild pitch would advance Wright to third, and he would later be brought home on a sacrifice fly from sophomore Ryne Yamashiro to make the score 2-1. The game was within striking distance with two outs.

The rally would soon come to an end though, as the next Kingsmen batter flew out to center to give the Sagehens a 2-1 victory.

“We didn’t approach some of our at bats the best way. We will have to adjust in order to beat them tomorrow, and I think we will,” Slimak said.

Gabe Naudin
Reporter