LOS ANGELES — It wasn't your typical walk-off win, but this isn't your typical Occidental College baseball season.
Oxy star Scott Hong (Los Angeles) stepped into the batter's box with the bases loaded, the score tied at eight and a 3-1 count in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Ithaca College's Brandon Diorio delivered the pitch from the stretch.
The next sound was the pop of the catcher's glove, followed by an awkward silence.
It was ball four — high and outside — bringing home Jacob Coleman (San Diego) for the game-winning run, 9-8, and extending Oxy's winning streak to nine games.
The Tigers are off to their best start that anyone can remember, one that's on par with some of the more impressive streaks in sports this year, on a relative Oxy baseball scale. The NHL's Chicago Blackhawks went 21-0-3 before they dropped a point, the NBA's Miami Heat have won 20 straight and counting, and Oxy is 15-2 overall and in first place in the SCIAC standings.
Oxy's only two losses this season came against Chapman, by one run each, in the Tigers first conference series of the year. In the Tigers' last outing, they defeated No. 18 Bridgewater 3-1 on Monday. Ithaca missed last week's national top 25, but received 12 votes for recognition on the list.
Last season Oxy had its best overall year since its last SCIAC Championship season in 1982. This one is almost sure to top last year's and Wednesday's game at Anderson Field had some important added contributions to what's already been a very good Tigers team.
Oxy's "Big Three" seniors — Hong, Logan Allen (Atascadero) and Pedro Aldape (Sherman Oaks) — combined for eight hits, four RBIs and five runs scored, the level of contribution that was highly anticipated as all three entered their final seasons, but that hadn't quite shown up simultaneously in the box scores yet. Each has had standout games this season, but all three were rolling on the same day against the Bombers (4-4).
Hong went 3 for 5 with a home run, two RBIs and one run scored. He hit a solo shot, his second of the year, to lead off the bottom of the fourth and give Oxy a 7-2 lead. In the top of the fifth, Hong, who might be the best overall player in the SCIAC as a fielder, hitter, base runner and pitcher, made a diving catch with one out and no one on that put a damper on an inning that looked like it might cause problems for the Tigers. He also earned the win, coming on to pitch 1.2 scoreless innings with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the eighth. On his second pitch he got Andrew Turner to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Hong is now 3-0 on the season.
Allen, one of the faces of not just the baseball team but also the entire Oxy student-athlete population, went 3 for 4 with three runs and a very important and impressive defensive play at shortstop. With the bases loaded, and the Bombers already on the board with one run in the inning, Allen made a backhand grab in the 6-5 gap and finished it with the Derek Jeter-signature jump throw going against his body to end the inning and rob another hit from Turner.
Aldape, an ABCA Second Team All-West Region selection at first base last year who's been the Tigers best power hitter for the past two season, was no slouch among the team's trio of studs, finishing 2 for 3 with two RBIs, one run scored and his first start in left field this season.
But while the "Big Three" were finally firing on all cylinders, Oxy's Riley Smith (Bellevue, Wash.) had the best day in the batter's box, going 4 for 5 with three RBIs.
Alec Strain's (Sacramento) game was the most versatile. Strain started the game on the mound for Oxy, allowing just one earned run in five innings, played left field, second base and then went back out to right field as Oxy shuffled through its lineup, getting multiple reps for its reserves and rest for its starters before a key series with Cal Lutheran starting this Friday in Thousand Oaks.
Both Smith and Strain, along with Johnathan Brooks (Huntington Beach), prove that the Oxy baseball program's talent is far deeper than a couple of upperclassmen. Brooks, who went 1 for 1 with two runs and an RBI on Wednesday and has got a hit in 11 of his 12 games played this year, is batting .524. Strain is at .404 and Smith is hitting .319 with two home runs, including a walk-off home run earlier this year against La Sierra.
Oxy led 7-2 until Ithaca scored six runs in the seventh and eighth innings to take the lead 8-7. The Tigers got back to even when Allen doubled, advanced to third on a balk and scored on John Ugai's (Durango, Colo.) pinch-hit single to center.
Corey Caswell had Ithaca's best day, going 3 for 4 with a home run, three RBIs and a run scored.
The schedule only gets tougher for the Tigers. Oxy's next six conference opponents are a combined 32-19 in SCIAC play. The Tigers head up to Cal Lu on Friday, opening the three-game series at 2 p.m., and then they return home to face the Kingsmen (9-5-1, 6-3 SCIAC) on Saturday for a doubleheader scheduled for 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.