LOS ANGELES, Calif. (March 11, 2015) – Sometimes people leave for a trip to Los Angeles to disappear, but for the Drew University baseball team, an afternoon game in the City of Angels was exactly what the Rangers needed to find themselves, as they won their first game of the year by defeating the Occidental College Tigers by a score of 3-1 on a sunny Wednesday pushing 70 degrees.
 
The Rangers have now gone long in two straight games. This time it was junior second baseman Anthony Feltre providing the pop with an ninth inning blast that gave Drew a bit of insurance.
 
Senior starter Leo Ruiz and sophomore left-handed reliever Patrick Boyle combined to toss all nine innings of the one-run affair. Ruiz threw four innings of scoreless ball and Boyle picked up his first win as a Ranger, going five and allowing only one run on four hits and two walks, while striking out two.
 
Senior centerfielder Al Krause has gotten his swan song off to a hot start. The co-captain has swatted a base knock in every game thus far, breaking the scoreless tie with a two-run single in the fifth and providing Drew with all the offense it would need on the afternoon.
 
From the outset, this contest had the makings of something the Rangers had yet to participate in this year: a pitchers; duel. Though, if you were dropped into bottom of the second with the bases packed with Tigers and no one out, you'd assume otherwise. But Ruiz had plans to showcase elusiveness of Houdini levels. He struck out the Occidental shortstop swinging, and then got the next man to send a grounder to sophomore Jonathan Rodrigues at the hot corner. He slung one briskly to sophomore catcher Mike Miraglia to nab the lead runner, and Miraglia pivoted and fired on to first to complete the 5-2-3 double play and help Ruiz wiggle out of a tough jam unscathed.
 
The Rangers would prove that their ability to squirm out of tough jams wasn't just a one-time thing. A similar incident occurred in the ninth inning when Occidental loaded the bases again, this time against Boyle. But Boyle worked a groundout to Feltre and got Drew the win with the Tigers' winning run stranded on first base.
 
Drew will look to continue its winning ways as they close out their West Coast swing with a double dip in Pasadena with The California Institute of Technology with first pitch scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT).