Westmont Baseball suffered a narrow 2-1 loss in Thursday’s Golden State Athletic Conference game against Point Loma Nazarene (11-11, 4-5 GSAC) at Russ Carr Field. The Warriors (8-12-1, 3-6) were able to move a man to third in the bottom of the ninth, but stranded pinch runner Steven Motush just 90 feet away from a tie game.
“We had a few opportunities, but not many,” said Ruiz. “There were a just a handful of situations where we didn’t execute and that was the difference in the ball game. Their starting pitcher did a great job of keeping us off balance, but when we did create opportunities we didn’t do anything with them. That is what you have to do to win close ballgames.”
Point Loma Nazarene starter Justin Lawrence was awarded the win after pitching seven and two-third innings and allowing one run on seven hits. Lawrence threw 98 pitches, 77 of which were strikes. He struck out seven without allowing a walk.
Westmont’s Torin Shaikh was charged with the loss, despite a descent outing from the junior right-hander. In five innings of work, Shaikh gave up two runs on five hits, struck out one and, like Lawrence, did not allow a walk. Ryan Sullivan pitched the final four innings, allowing four hits without surrendering a run.
“I thought Torin was better today,” said Ruiz. “He built off last week’s outing and got some things cleaned up. He was down in the zone and keeping the hitters off balance. Sullivan came in and did a phenomenal job out of the pen. Those two guys gave us every chance to win that game. We just didn’t get it done today.”
The Sea Lions’ first run came in the fourth inning when Lucas DiCiicio powered a home run over the right-centerfield fence. In the fifth, Point Loma added another run on and RBI double to right filed by Bryan Burkhead that drove in Clinton Harwick.
Westmont got on the board in the eighth inning. J.J. Turbin led off the inning with a single to right center. After Leary flied out to center field, Coby Cress came to the plate. When Lawrence threw a pitch in the dirt, Turbin took off for second. However, Ricky Gingras gathered the ball quickly and fired it off to second base to easily retire Turbin. Cress then knocked a home run over the left field fence.
“We teach our guys to be aggressive when those types of things happen,” said Ruiz in referring to the pitch in the dirt. “You just chalk it up to it not being a great read. It is hard for me to fault a guy for being aggressive when that is what we are trying to create in our offense. It was the least celebrated home run I have ever been a part of on a baseball field.”
In the bottom of the ninth, the Warriors had a chance to tie the game when catcher Jarratt Rouse earned a leadoff walk. Pinch hitter Greg Ruggles was brought in to bunt pinch runner Motush to second base. After picking up his second strike, Ruggles laid down a successful sacrifice bunt to the first base side of the mound.
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“Jarratt did a phenomenal job of drawing a lead-off walk off a good closer in the ninth,” said Ruiz. “Ruggles did a good job bunting him over. I have a lot of confidence in his ability to do that and he pulled through.”
Motush reached third when pinch hitter Trevor Christianson grounded out to second. That brought up David Pennington with two away and a man at third. However, Point Loma closer Chris Gonzalez struck out Pennington to end the game and pick up the save.
The same two teams return to Russ Carr Field tomorrow for the second of their four-game series. On Saturday, they will conclude the series with a doubleheader in San Diego. Friday’s game begins at two o’clock.
