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LOS ANGELES — Justin Hirschberg and the Occidental baseball team took down Cal Lutheran 8-1 in Game 3 on Saturday afternoon for a 2-1 series victory this weekend.

With the win, Oxy moves into a tie with the Kingsmen for third and owns the head-to-head tiebreaker between the teams with three games to play in the regular season.

Hirschberg took the ball and pitched the best game of his career, going seven innings, with no earned runs, four strike outs and a pair of walks in his fifth career start.

Diego Ramirez, who closed out the early game on Saturday with five outs for the save, pitched the final two innings of the day to secure the victory.

Jake Fredrickson, who's having a breakout year as one of Oxy's best hitters and one of the best left-handed bats in the SCIAC, blasted a solo home run in the third inning. He went 2 for 4 with a pair of runs scored, a double and two RBIs to lead Oxy's offense. 

The Tigers scored two runs in the first on RBI-singles by Angelo Zorn and Antonio Andrade, Fredrickson helped increase Oxy's lead to 6-0 with his homer in the third and then a double in the fifth, and then the Tigers added a run on a sac fly by Zorn in the sixth, and a solo homer by Andrade in the eighth.

Michael Ingram went 2 for 4 with a run for Oxy, and Andrade was 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs and a run.

Cal Lutheran scored an unearned run in the top of the eighth.

Things got heated between the teams in the bottom of the fifth when Oxy's senior star center fielder Jack Brancheau was hit high in the back with a pitch, sending both dugouts into a few mini verbal sparring matches.

When things calmed down, the Tigers finished off Cal Lutheran for the series win.

Season Impact: The Tigers are now tied for third place with Cal Lutheran at 13-8, and are 25-12 overall on the season. Oxy holds a two-game lead over CMS for the fourth-and-final SCIAC playoff spot. Several tiebreaker scenarios are still in play with a number of teams, but Oxy will clinch a spot in the playoffs with two wins and will likely clinch a spot with one more win, pending other results. 

Next Game: Oxy plays its final regular season SCIAC series against Redlands next weekend, beginning with a 3 p.m. game at Oxy next Friday. The teams will then finish the series with a doubleheader at Redlands on Saturday.