Westmont Baseball took on Vanguard (21-4, 12-2 GSAC) in a Golden State Athletic Conference doubleheader in Costa Mesa on Thursday afternoon. The Warriors (7-15, 3-9) were narrowly defeated in both games, falling 3-1 in the first and 8-7 in the second.
Greg Pellici took the mound to start the first game and turned in a solid outing. The junior lefthander allowed three runs on eight hits over seven innings of work. He struck out four and walked one.
But the Warriors could not generate enough offense to post runs on the board. Freshman third baseman Chris Ramirez and freshman second baseman Evan Wadginski each went three for four at the plate to accounted for 75 percent of the Warriors offensive output.
Westmont’s lone run came in the top of the second inning. After Ramirez doubled with one away, Wadginske singled to right center moving Ramirez to third. Ramirez scored on a ground ball to second base by left fielder Charles Whitman.
The Lions answered in the bottom half of the same inning when first baseman Jason Dovel drove in courtesy runner Braulio Archer from third base with a grounder to second. Vanguard added two more runs in the fifth inning to complete the scoring.
The Warriors started off well in the second game when center fielder Terrell Wong produced a leadoff double to right center. After advancing to third on a ground ball by shortstop Jordan Bottenfield, Wong scored on a wild pitch to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead.
Shortstop Zachary Leighton evened the score for Vanguard with a leadoff home run in the bottom half of the first before designated hitter Eric Krzysiak tripled and later scored to put the Lions up 2-1.
Westmont right fielder Coby Cress singled up the middle to start things off in the top of the second and advanced to second when first baseman Mark Magdaleno hit a ground ball to first. Ramirez also hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield, allowing Magdaleno to reach third with two away. That brought up catcher Evan Soliman who singled through the right side to drive in Magdaleno and tie the score at two runs apiece.
Vanguard scored twice in the bottom of the third to take a 4-2 lead but the Warriors closed to within one in the top of the fourth. Ramirez led off the inning with a double to left field and later scored on a single to left by Wong.
However, Vanguard took a 6-3 lead by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on a single, a double a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly.
Westmont narrowed the score by one in the top of the sixth when Wong was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and one away. With designated hitter Tim Leary on deck, Bottenfield grounded into a double play to end the inning. When Leary did come up in the top of the seventh, he hit his eighth home run of the season to make it a 6-5 game.
First baseman Bryce Arroyo matched Leary’s effort in the bottom of the seventh and Vanguard regained a two-run margin.
Soliman led off in the top of the eighth inning and was hit by a pitch. Phil Pricket came in as a courtesy runner for the Warrior’s catcher and reached second on a bunt single by Whitman. Wong then stepped to the plate and sent a double to left field. The blast drove in Pricket, making the score 7-6 in favor of the Lions, and gave the Warriors men on second and third with no outs.
After a change of pitchers for the Lions, Bottenfield grounded to the shortstop, allowing Whitman to score and tie the game at seven all.
Westmont brought in Dan Price to take over on the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning. After retiring the first batter, Arroyo delivered a game-winning solo home run to left field. Price was charged with the loss.
Jacob Regalado started the game for the Warriors and pitched six innings. He gave up six runs on 10 hits, struck out three and did not allow a walk. Chris Plance pitched the seventh inning for Westmont, giving up one run on one hit.
The win was assigned to Adrian Mendoza who pitched thee eighth inning for the Lions. Robert Purpura, who pitched the seventh, was awarded a save. Both pitchers faced the minimum number of batters for an inning’s work.
On Saturday, the two teams will meet up again for another doubleheader – this time at Westmont’s Russ Carr Field. First pitch is scheduled for noon. Due to a planned power outage, no internet video, live stats or text message updates will be available for Saturday’s games.
