THOUSAND OAKS — As the saying goes, 'baseball is a game of inches.'

That old adage was confirmed on Friday as the Occidental College baseball team was on the wrong side of a few close plays and one very-hard-to-stomach overturned call in a 4-3 loss to No. 8 Cal Lutheran on the first day of the inaugural double-elimination SCIAC Postseason Baseball tournament.

With runners on first and second and the score tied at three in bottom of the eighth inning, Oxy third baseman A.J. Libunao (Huntington Beach) fielded a grounder, tagged third and threw to first for what should have been an inning-ending double play. But his throw sailed over Pedro Aldape's (Sherman Oaks) head, sending Mike Vinyard, who was headed to second, to third. As Oxy recovered the ball, Vinyard made a conservative turn around third base and appeared to clip the back of Libunao's heel. Libunao was closer to the cut of the grass than the baseline and the field umpire initially ruled no interference.

Vinyard was not heading home and would not have scored even if he hadn't stumbled.

But after hearing arguments from Cal Lu head coach Marty Slimak and a 5-minute conference with the home plate umpire, interference was called and Vinyard was awarded home for the game-winning run.

Libunao fielded the next ground ball cleanly and threw a strike to first to end the inning.

It was the second close call that went against the Tigers in the eighth. Earlier in the inning, Oxy reliever Thomas Lalli (Bountiful, Utah) picked off Ramsey Abushahla, but Abushahla advanced to second by sliding just underneath Oxy shortstop Logan Allen's (Atascadero) tag on Aldape's throw from first.

Oxy loaded the bases and had a great chance in the ninth.

Scott Hong (Los Angeles) singled and advanced to second on an outfield bobble. But in the next at bat, Hong was thrown out at third on a ball hit to short as Allen grounded into a fielder's choice.Johnathan Brooks (Huntington Beach) singled to right in the next at bat on a ball that probably would have scored Hong from second.

Still Oxy wasn't out of it.

Aldape got hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Victor Munoz (La Verne). Munoz fouled off four pitches in a competitive at bat, but swung through a high fast ball on a 2-2 count to end the game.

The Tigers were on the wrong end of a questionable call, had the best base runner in the league commit a base running blunder, made four errors and still almost knocked off the No. 8 Kingsmen.

But you wouldn't have been able to tell who was the nationally ranked team unless someone told you. The Tigers out-hit the Kingsmen 13-10 and threatened with runners in scoring position throughout the game.

They just had one too many bad breaks.

In the bottom of the second inning, Alec Strain (Sacramento) lost a fly ball in right field that blended in with the smoky sky from the 10,000-acre Ventura County fire in the background, allowing a run to score.

In the fifth, Oxy missed out on a run when Brooks was called out at first by inches, to end the inning, on a high chopper as Hong crossed the plate for what would have tied the game at two.

In the bottom half of the fifth, Cal Lu's Jake Peterson got into scoring position on a funky triple down the right field line that probably would have been just a double had it not bounced off the bullpen rubber. Kling got two outs in a row to end the inning, but one of them was a sacrifice fly by Trevor Koons, giving Cal Lu a 3-1 lead.

Kling gave up three earned runs in six innings pitched. Lalli gave up one unearned in two innings.

Oxy's hitting was mostly spread out in the first four innings. Brooks bounced a seeing-eye single up the middle in the first, Riley Smith (Bellevue, Wash.) lined a base hit to right field in the second, and Munoz doubled down the left field line in the fourth, but each time Oxy came away empty handed.

In the fifth, Oxy strung together some hits. Libunao ripped a single to left field and then advanced to second on a sac bunt by Chris Strain (Bellevue, Wash.). Then Hong dribbled an infield single to second base and Allen lined a single to right field, bringing Libunao across to cut the Kingsmen lead to 2-1.

Oxy rallied to tie the game at three in the sixth.

After Aldape and Smith both singled, Chris Caldwell (Santa Clarita) came up with a big pinch-hit RBI knock to centerfield. Libunao followed it with his second line-drive single of the game, bringing Smith across for the game-tying run.

Cal Lu scored first in the second. Nick Boggan and Nick DeLorenzo led off the inning with consecutive singles and then advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Kevin Leonard. Kling got Mike Vinyard to pop up to right, but Strain lost track of the ashy-sky double. The ball would have been deep enough to score Boggan anyway. Spencer Dubois drove in DeLorenzo with a single to center in Cal Lu's next at bat.

As the Kingsmen threatened in the bottom of the seventh, Hong threw out Nick Dellavalle for the third out at second base as he overran the bag on Boggan's single to centerfield.

Libunao, Smith, Hong, Brooks and Aldape all had two hits for the Tigers.

Oxy faces Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Cal Lutheran.