LOS ANGELES — Joseph Kling (Kirksville, Mo.) pitched a complete game, A.J. Libunao hit a two-run home run and the Occidental College baseball team snapped a five-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over Rutgers-Newark in the final game of a three-game series at Anderson Field on Sunday.
Oxy (16-7) lost the first game of the doubleheader 8-2.
Kling gave up just one run on a balk in the third inning, throwing less than 97 pitches to improve to 2-1 on the season. He allowed just five hits and only walked two batters.
In the bottom of the fourth, Libunao crushed a two-run shot that hugged the foul pole as it sailed over the fence down the left-field line, bringing home Jacob Lee (Olympia, Wash.) to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
Riley Smith (Bellevue, Wash.), who's emerging as one of the Tigers' key players, drove in Oxy's other two runs. He knocked in Lee for Oxy's first run in the bottom of the third and brought homeJohnathan Brooks (Huntington Beach) with a double in the fifth.
Smith was 2 for 4 and Scott Hong (Los Angeles) was 2 for 5 for Oxy in Game 2.
In Game 1, the Oxy bats just didn't get going.
The Tigers had their opportunities, but couldn't come through with timely hits in an 8-2 loss to the Scarlet Raiders (5-11).
Oxy left seven runners on base in seven innings. Twice they loaded the bases only to come up empty handed.
The Tigers looked like they might get some offense when Chris Caldwell (Santa Clarita) and John Ugai(Durango, Colo.) led off the bottom of the sixth with consecutive singles. But Oxy went down 1-2-3 in its next three at bats, stranding Caldwell and Ugai.
Kevin Olah was responsible for more than half of the damage for the Scarlet Raiders. Olah went 3 for 3 with two home runs, three RBIS and three runs scored. The lefty hit a solo shot in the first and a two-run blast in the third.
Olah finished the day 4 for 7.
Libunao, who played shortstop in the first game with Logan Allen (Atascadero) and several other Oxy regulars sitting after the 23-inning marathon on Saturday, went 2 for 3 with one RBI and one run in Game 2.
The Tigers are back in action next week, hosting Whittier on Friday at 3 p.m.