AZUSA, Calif. -- Pomona-Pitzer didn't want this one, but apparently neither did Azusa Pacific.

Yet, somebody had to win, and Felipe Aguilar made sure it was the Sagehens.

Aguilar hammered his second home run of the season for what turned out to be game-winner in the top of the eighth, and then he tagged out the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth to preserve Pomona-Pitzer's 8-7 non-conference win over the Cougars in a wild one Monday evening in Azusa.

The Sagehens did all they could to throw this one away as they committed 6 errors, including 2 in Azusa Pacific's 4-run seventh that enabled the Cougars to complete a comeback and take a 7-6 lead.

But the Cougars failed to capitalize, and it came back to bite them, especially in the ninth.

Nate Leiser led off with a walk but was forced out on Jeff Staniland's grounder to third. Stephen Vogt then went the other way with a single to left, putting the tying run on second with one out. Joe Morrison then laced the first pitch he saw from reliever Alex Perkins into right field. Staniland hesitated for a split second as he rounded third and was eventually thrown out the plate on a close play when Aguilar corralled Jase Turner's high relay throw and tagged Staniland just in time.

The Cougars were still in business, though, with the tying run on second in Vogt. However, Ben Shanker snared Scott Hodsdon's scorching liner to left to end the game.

Perkins ended up getting the win after throwing 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. He relieved starter Kyle Buika in the seventh, who was the victim of the shaky Sagehen defense. Buika allowed just 5 hits and gave up 7 runs but just one of them was earned.

The Sagehens took a 4-0 lead, keyed by a 3-run fourth. They chased Cougar starter Daniel Sloan in the fourth after he struggled with his location. Sloan gave up just 3 hits but surrendered 3 walks, including a bases loaded walk followed by a hit-batsmen to force in a pair of runs in the fourth. Jake Boyle relieved him and gave up a sacrifice fly before ending the inning. He made one mistake in the fifth, a Turner 2-run shot that gave the Sagehens a 6-2 lead.

Hodsdon finished 2-for-5 and had a 2-RBI double in the fourth that cut the deficit in half at 4-2. Turner the pushed the lead back up to 4 before the Cougars cut the deficit in half in the sixth. Staniland reached on a throwing error by shortstop Tyler Burr, advanced to second on a wild pitch and stole third. He later scored on Morrison's groundout to second to make it 6-3.

Then, the Cougars seemingly seized momentum in the seventh. Canales hit a laser to center that was dropped by Edward Pickett. Pinch-hitter Nick Pursell then singled on a liner to center. Canales moved to third on pinch-hitter John Ray's deep flyout to center. After Nate Leiser was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Sam Whitehead bobbled Staniland's grounder to second, which scored Canales. Vogt then delivered a 2-RBI single to right, and Morrison capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to left to score Staniland and give the Cougars a 7-6 lead.

Whitehead led off the eighth with an infield single off reliever Jason Madsen. He moved to second on Burr's sacrifice bunt and then took third on a wild pitch. Aguilar then did his damage with a tape-measure shot down the left field line.

Vogt was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs as was Morrison. The Cougars finished with 8 hits and left 8 runners on base.