Skip To Main Content

Azusa Pacific University Athletics

The Online Home of the Azusa Pacific Cougars
8
Winner Azusa Pacific APU 25-6
5
The Master's TMC 22-11
Winner
Azusa Pacific APU
25-6
8
Final
5
The Master's TMC
22-11
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
Azusa Pacific APU 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 8 13 1
The Master's TMC 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 7 2

W: Lebsock, Garrett (8-1) L: BLACKWELL (0-1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Gary Pine

Cougars Keep Winning In Extra Innings

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- Less than 24 hours after rallying for a wild 19-18 win in 10 innings at home over The Master's, the NAIA's No. 6-ranked Azusa Pacific went on the road for another come-from-behind win in 10 innings with an 8-5 victory over the No. 18-ranked Mustangs Thursday afternoon.
 
Junior third baseman Ryan Delgado hit 2 home runs for the second straight game, and he hit his first to lead off the top of the sixth inning after he struck out in both of his first 2 at-bats. That opposite-field solo shot pulled Azusa Pacific to within 4-3, and the score was still the same when he hit another solo home run to right with 1 out in the eighth to tie the game at 4-4.
 
Two batters later, senior leftfielder Stephen Gillette delivered the go-ahead run with a 2-out solo home run to right that gave Azusa Pacific a 5-4 edge. A hit-batsman followed by back-to-back singles loaded the bases for the Cougars, but Mustangs reliever Eric Blackwell struck out the first batter he faced, senior second baseman Ryan Dowell, to end the threat.
 
Dowell later redeemed himself with the game-winning hit, a 2-run, 2-out single with the bases loaded in the top of the 10th inning. Junior first baseman Chris Feicht added an RBI single that pushed the 10th-inning lead to 8-5. Feicht led the Cougars' 13-hit attack with a 3-for-5 afternoon.
 
Pete Goeman was hit by pitch to lead off the ninth, and moments later he stood just 90 feet away from tying the game after stealing second and taking an extra base on the errant throw to second. He scored on Joe Zeller's RBI single, and Zeller swiped second before senior righthander Garrett Lebsock was summoned from the Cougar bullpen. A sacrifice bunt moved Zeller to third, and the Cougars opted to load the bases and set up a force play at any base with intentional walks to Caleb Mintz and Thomas Diamond.
 
The strategy paid off when Ben Ives grounded out to senior shortstop Shaun Lane, who cut down Mustangs pinch-runner Joe Chavarria at the plate for the second out. Lebsock then induced an inning-ending groundout to third base to escape the jam and send the game to extra innings.
 
Azusa Pacific loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the 10th inning, although Blackwell got an infield grounder that erased the lead runner on the force at home and then struck out the next batter for the second out. That's when Dowell stepped to the plate and drove in a pair with his only hit of the afternoon.
 
Lebsock issued a 1-out walk in the bottom of the tenth, but the next batter flied out to right before the senior righthander finished it off with an inning-ending groundout to shortstop for his eighth win of the season. It was his fifth decision in 5 relief appearances this year, improving his overall record to 8-1, and his ERA as a reliever dropped to 0.64 in 14 innings of work out of the bullpen.
 
Azusa Pacific improves to 25-6 overall, 15-5 GSAC, and the Cougars remain 1 game behind Point Loma Nazarene, a 5-4 winner over Concordia Thursday, for the GSAC lead. The Master's, which won 11 of its first 13 GSAC games, has now lost 4 straight and 6 of its last 7, including 3 extra-inning defeats. Azusa Pacific hosts Concordia Saturday for a noon doubleheader, the last games at home for the Cougars before a stretch of 8 road games over the next 2 weeks.
 
 
Print Friendly Version