THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - As the hosts of this weekend's California Invite, the Cal Lutheran were anything but hospitable to their guests as the Kingsmen were able to extend their win streak by another two games with their 4-3 victory over Puget Sound, and 11-0 win (8 inn.) against Carleton College.
Box Score (Game One): CLU 4, UPS 3 - F
Box Score (Game Two): CLU 11, CC 0 - F/8
Currently at 10 games, CLU's current streak is the largest since the 2004 season. A sweep of Saturday's doubleheader will give the Kingsmen their third-longest win streak since joining the SCIAC in 1992, trailing only the 12 and 21 game streaks of the 1998 and 1992 teams respectively.
Cal Lutheran 4, Puget Sound 3 - F
With their one-run third and three-run fourth inning efforts in game one against Puget Sound, Cal Lutheran was able to give starting pitcher John LaMoure the cushion he needed to earn his fourth victory of the season.
Allowing only two hits during his seven full innings thrown, LaMoure now leads the Kingsman pitching staff with his 4-1 overall record and 1.34 ERA.
Reaching base safely to start the events of the CLU second inning with his single to centerfield, K.C. Judge would eventually touch home plate on Nicholas DellaValle's single to give the Kingsmen a 1-0 lead.
Starting the action in CLU's third inning by reaching base after being hit by a pitch, Iggy Wagner would soon become the first of three Kingsmen to complete their tour of the diamond as both Richard Michelin and Nick Boggan and would score on Judge's groundout to short and Leal's single to left center to increase the CLU lead to 4-0.
Michelin initially reached base on a Logger fielding error, and was followed by Boggan who hit a single to right field.
Now trailing by four runs, the first three batters in the Logger's half of the fourth were all able to reach base safely, creating the first scoring threat of the afternoon.
With the Kingsmen now in a precarious position with zero outs in the inning, the Loggers were able to whittle away at the CLU lead, scoring all three runs after the Kingsmen recorded the first out of the frame.
Watching his team's lead shrink to a solitary run, LaMoure was then able bring a sudden and abrupt end to the inning by inducing Logger batters to hit a pop-up and ground ball to CLU shortstop Trevor Koons to end the inning.
That inning would turn out to be the first, and last scoring opportunity that Puget Sound would create as LaMoure successfully prevented the Loggers from threatening CLU's lead during his final three innings on the mound, and exited the game after throwing seven full innings.
Spencer Trygg and Byron Minnich would take over from that point on, throwing one scoreless inning each to help CLU earn another home victory.
Minnich nearly entered the game in with a two run advantage; even though the call at home plate did not go Cal Lutheran's way, the circumstances of the ninth inning were favorable to the Kingsmen as Minnich retired the Loggers in order to earn his team-high fourth save of the season.
Responsible for the CLU offense against Puget Sound, Boggan, Judge, Leal, and DellaValle each finished the game with one RBI apiece.
Cal Lutheran 11, Carleton 0 - F/8
Even though Cal Lutheran's role changed in game two against Carleton College, the result was still a familiar one to fans of Kingsman baseball as CLU defeated the designated home team by a score of 11-0 in their eight-inning game against the Knights.
Cal Lutheran will also serve as the "visiting" team in game two of Saturday's twin-bill against Ithaca.
As was the case in their previous game against Puget Sound, Cal Lutheran scored in the second inning to jump out to an early lead.
With seven of the nine Kingsmen batters able to take their swings against Carleton starter Anderson Cole, Wagner started the CLU scoring spree with his groundout to Knight first baseman Kiyota Gomi, allowing Wyatt Byers to score from third.
Beginning the Cal Lutheran half of the inning with a lead-off walk, Travis Dadigan and Craig Jacobson joined Byers on-base shortly thereafter to load the bases and create CLU's inaugural scoring threat of the game.
Advancing to third and second base respectively during Wagner's at-bat, Darren Iacono wrapped-up his team's scoring effort by splitting the Carleson first and second baseman with his single through the right side of the infield, enabling Jacobson and Dadigan to score with ease.
Mirroring the events of the first game, the early CLU runs were enough of an advantage for Kingsman starter Ian Durham to pick up the win in his game as he also limited Carleton to only two hits throughout the game.
After throwing five no-hit innings, Carleton was finally able to break Durham's stranglehold on their line-up when David Ames reached first base on his single to right field.
Unfortunately for the Knights Ames was only one of two batters who would record a hit against the Kingsman pitching duo of Durham and Chris Park, and finished the game unable to create a serious scoring opportunity of their own.
The win is Durham's first of the season.
Even though the events of the second inning created more than enough of a lead against the Knights, Cal Lutheran still continued to build upon their initial advantage as the game continued. A two-run seventh inning was sandwiched by dual three-run scoring efforts in both the fifth and eighth innings to help the Kingsmen earn their third consecutive doubleheader sweep and improve their home record to 10-1.
As the organizer of this weekend's California Invite, a two-day collegiate baseball event featuring five different teams, Cal Lutheran will play two games during each day of competition. Defeating Puget Sound and Carleton College on Friday, CLU will now face Rutgers-Newark and Ithaca on Saturday.
First pitch for Cal Lutheran's game against Rutgers-Newark will take place at 9:30 a.m. at George "Sparky" Anderson Field at Ullman Stadium. The CLU-Ithaca game is tentatively scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m.