Strong pitching led Westmont to a Golden State Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep of Vanguard (12-12, 8-6) on Wednesday afternoon at Russ Carr Field. The Warriors (11-14, 4-10 GSAC) took the opener 4-3 before winning the second game 5-1.
First-game starter Dan Cabuling improved his record to 3-3 with an eight-inning performance. The left-hander gave up two runs on eight hits. Cabuling struck out four and walked two.
“When you have a so-called ace, you like him to go out and give you a chance to win,” said Westmont pitching coach Tony Cougoule, “Dan has done that all year. He typically has command of the breaking ball but didn’t have command of it today. So he had to grit and grind with his fast ball and made pitches when he had to. It wasn’t his best performance, but he put up six goose eggs in a row.”
Jacob Regalado pitched the ninth to earn a save, his third of the season. He gave up one run on two hits.
The Warriors rallied from a 2-0 in the second. Coby Cress led off with a double down the right-field line. One out later, he was joined on the base pads by Torin Shaikh, the result of a walk.
That brought up Brandon Allen whose ground ball to second was mishandled by the Vanguard shortstop resulting in the bases loaded with one away. Phil Prickett brought home Cress with a ground ball to the shortstop that retired Allen at second and moved Shaikh to third. Jarratt Rouse reached first and drove in Shaikh with a ground ball deep in the hole at short to account for the second run.
Westmont’s go-ahead run came in the sixth inning. Shaikh walked to start things up for the Warriors then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Allen. Shaikh scored by virtue of an error committed by the shortstop on a ground ball by Prickett.
The Warriors added what proved to be the winning run in the seventh. With one away, J.J. Turbin singled to left and then stole second. Jordan Bottenfield’s single to right-center drove home Turbin to make the score 4-2.
In the nightcap, starter Geoff Rocha pitched out of several jams in his four innings of work, allowing just one run on two hits. He struck out two and walked five.
Freshman Ryan Sullivan (1-1) relieved Rocha and pitched five scoreless innings to earn his first collegiate win. Sullivan allowed just two hits, struck out four and did not permit a walk.
“Sullivan gained a little bit of confidence as a freshman coming in last week against Biola,” said Cougoule, “Today he attacked the strike zone and had good command of his change up. He was getting a lot of ground balls and a lot of swing and miss with his change up.”
