THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Cal Lutheran was playing catch up all day after a first inning two-run homer by Joe Buckley gave visiting La Verne the early lead. The Kingsmen brought the tying run to the plate twice in the ninth but both went down via strikeouts and the Leopards completed the extended weekend series sweep.

Box Score: ULV 10, CLU 7 - F   

From the outset ULV hitters were looking to extend at bats against CLU starting pitcher John LaMoure. Despite not getting on base Jacob Ludvik's six pitch at bat to open the game and Jason Muñoz's nine pitch appearance featuring six foul bals was a sign of things to come.

Donovan Petta walked on the ensuing at bat on four straight pitches and finished the game without recording an official at bat. He went 0-for-0 with a walk, was hit by the pitch twice and recorded two of the team's five sacrifices in the game.

The key was putting runners on base and in scoring position contributing to Buckley's big day. The ULV designated hitter went 3-for-5 with four RBI and scored twice.

LaMoure threw 102 pitches in four-plus innings of work and was relegated to the Kingsmen dugout early on. In total five different pitchers were used needing 173 pitchers to finish out the game.

Trevor Koons and Iggy Wagner had back-to-back hits in the third and fifth innings breaking through for the Kingsmen offense and keeping them within comeback range. The teams traded one run each in the third, fifth and sixth innings including a CLU rundown that allowed for the runner on third to score.

The Leopard half of the seventh put them up by six after the first three runners on base reached safely. An error, two runners forced home via issued walks and a sacrifice fly later the Kingsmen were facing a near insurmountable deficit.

CLU took advantage of two inning opening walks and a defensive miscue in the eighth as Danny Gallinot's run-scoring single and Nicholas DellaValle's two-run base hit putting the score at 10-6.

La Verne's sloppy ninth inning defense allowed for Cal Lutheran to construct a last chance comeback after two errors put runners on the corners and the tying run at the plate with one out. However closer Sean Fasig regrouped and fanned the final batters on 1-2 counts to seal the three-game sweep.

Cal Lutheran's Iggy Wagner led the team with three hits on Monday and for the series went 7-for-13 (.538) and successfully swiped a pair of stolen bases.

Over the past three meetings La Verne used its small ball strategy to perfection drawing 21 walks, had eight batters reach by getting hit by the pitch, put down six sacrifice bunts and lifted three sacrifice flies in total.

Prior to Saturday Cal Lutheran led the conference standings by a half-game but now are a half-game up on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for fourth place.

Cal Lutheran (15-10, 9-5 SCIAC) will play at Pomona-Pitzer on Friday, Apr. 1 at 3 p.m. before hosting a Saturday doubleheader with the Sagehens starting at 11 a.m.