Powerful hitting from the men’s baseball team, including a seven-run inning against the Dallas Christian University Crusaders, spurred the team to their most successful week of the season.
A near sweep
The Eagles nearly swept their Golden State Athletic Conference matchup against the William Jessup University Warriors and took their doubleheader against the Crusaders. In the end, Biola improved to a 3-6 conference record and moved up to 10-15 on the season.
The Eagles held off the Warriors and won the series opener 7-4. Although senior starting pitcher Eric Diomartich pitched 5.2 innings, allowing only four hits and three runs, junior right handed pitcher Gabe Ihrig came into the game in the fifth and earned his first win of the season.
“We knew that William Jessup doesn’t have a lot of hard throwing guys so we knew going in they weren’t going to blow us away,” said Jeremy Barth, senior leftfielder. “We knew we should hit the ball the other way and that was our goal.”
Thorne leads the offense
Leading the offense was junior catcher Sam Thorne, who went 3-4, and both senior leftfielder Aaron Chavez and junior second baseman JD Meyer contributed a pair of RBIs to the Eagles’ win.
Biola clinched the series after beating the Warriors in the second game 10-6. Once again, the Eagles’ high-scoring offense supported the pitching staff as Meyer and designated hitter Eugene Shin both hit two-plus RBIs.
“That was our first series win which was really good,” Barth said. “We just played our game, we took it to them, stayed back and doing what we could do with the pitches. We got some good hits and good opportunities to go the other way with pitches and we executed well.”
Warriors steal the sweep
Thorne took the mound in the top of the eighth and pitched his first save of the season. He preserved the Eagles’ lead and held the Warriors to three runs in the last two innings of the game, not allowing a hit or a run.
The Eagles had a chance to sweep the series, but fell to the Warriors 2-3 in the finale. Although junior starting pitcher Jimmy Gallarda pitched a complete game, allowing six hits and three runs, a two-run last inning comeback pushed the Warriors ahead as they beat the Eagles.
“We lost that third game because, even though that guy wasn’t throwing very hard, we were still trying to be big and get crazy with it instead of pulling the bat and going the other way,” Barth said.
In the first game of the doubleheader against the Crusaders, the Eagles could not hold on to their 3-1 lead going into the eighth. The Crusaders gained the lead after scoring three runs off senior right handed pitcher Sean Rothfuss in the top of the eighth.
A literal walk off
With two innings left in the game, Chavez hit the game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the eighth and coaxed a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to win the game 5-4. After another outing in the bullpen, Thorne improved to 1-0, earning his first win of the season.
After a seven-run fifth inning, the Eagles won the second game of the doubleheader 13-0. Sophomore right handed pitcher Daniel Jang and freshman left handed pitcher Tiger Chase combined to pitch the Eagles’ first shutout of the season, holding the Crusaders to six hits.
The Eagles pick up their GSAC matchups with a three-game series at Arizona Christian University starting on Friday, March 11 2:00 p.m.
