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12
Azusa Pacific APU 26-9, 16-8 GSAC
16
Winner Fresno Pacific FPU 22-10, 17-9 GSAC
Azusa Pacific APU
26-9, 16-8 GSAC
12
Final
16
Fresno Pacific FPU
22-10, 17-9 GSAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Azusa Pacific APU 0 0 2 0 0 2 1 4 3 12 15 2
Fresno Pacific FPU 0 1 2 8 0 0 2 3 X 16 20 0

W: HAWES (3-2) L: Lebsock, Garrett (8-3)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Joe Reinsch

Skid Continues in Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. -- If the first 2 days of April are any indication, Azusa Pacific may be in for a rough ending to the regular season. A day after pushing just 1 run across in a 2-1 defeat at Fresno Pacific, the NAIA's No. 6-ranked Cougars only got their offense rolling in a 16-12 defeat after the No. 24-ranked Sunbirds exploded for an 8-run fourth inning to take an 11-2 lead.
 
The loss extended Azusa Pacific's first losing streak of the season to 3 games. It also sent the Cougars 3 games behind Golden State Athletic Conference leader Point Loma Nazarene and reduced its hold on second place to mere percentage points over a Fresno Pacific squad that has made up a 4-game deficit on Azusa Pacific with 9 wins in the past 11 conference games. Over that 11-game stretch, only 2 GSAC teams have fewer victories than the 5 the Cougars have claimed during that time.
 
Azusa Pacific has now lost 4 of its past 5 conference road games, with the only win an 8-5 10-inning win over The Master's, and the Cougars are just 2 games into a season-long 7-game road swing. Of its 12 games to end the conference schedule, 9 are on the road for Azusa Pacific, which is 4-5 away from home this season.
 
For the second straight day, Azusa Pacific took an early 1-run lead, erasing Fresno Pacific's 1-0 lead with back-to-back solo home runs from senior outfielders Drew Evans and Stephen Gillette  to lead off the top of the third inning. Fresno Pacific came right back for a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to take a 3-2 lead, and the floodgates opened in the bottom of the fourth after the Cougars left the bases loaded without scoring in the top of the frame.
 
Sunbirds catcher Jared Coleman reached on an error to lead off the inning, and Alec Mehrten's high chopper caught Cougar third baseman Ryan Delgado out of position for a single down the third-base line. Karlan Andrews' single scored the first of 8 runs, and Dwight Nixon drilled senior righthander Garrett Lebsock's full-count offering over the center-field fence for a 3-run home run that gave Fresno Pacific a 7-2 lead. Each of the next 4 Sunbirds batters reached base safely, with a  pair scoring on Joey Norwood's 2-run double, and Norwood later scored the final run of the inning on senior righthander Christian Gagné's wild pitch.
 
Fresno Pacific loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth, and had runners on second and third with no outs in the sixth without scoring a run in either frame. Gagné induced a double-play grounder in the fifth that held the remaining runners at their original positions due to a runner's interference ruling. In the sixth, Gagné struck out Mehrten, and, with the Cougar infield pulled in, senior shortstop Shaun Lane gunned down a runner at home on a sharp grounder with 1 out.
 
Cutspec led off the top of the sixth with a sharp line drive off the top of the right-center field fence for a single, and Delgado hit the next pitch over the center-field fence for a 2-run home run that cut Fresno Pacific's lead to 11-4. The Cougars added 1 in the seventh and 4 more in the eighth, but Fresno Pacific touched up a combination of 3 Azusa Pacific relievers for 5 runs in the seventh and eighth innings to take a 16-9 lead into the final inning. The Cougars scored 3 on an Evans 2-run double followed by Gillette's RBI single that cut the lead to 16-12. Fresno Pacific reliever Brian Oliver ended the game with an acrobatic double play, stopping Lane's liner back up the middle with his glove before snaring the loose ball just over the grass with his bare throwing hand before firing to first for the game-ending double play.
 
Delgado and Gillette each collected 3 hits for Azusa Pacific, but Fresno Pacific had a trio of 3-hit efforts as well as a 4-for-6 performance from first baseman Jacob Burns.
 
With the defeat, Azusa Pacific drops to 26-9 overall, 16-8 GSAC, while Fresno Pacific improves to 23-10 overall, 17-9 GSAC. The Cougars return to action with a Saturday visit to San Diego Christian for a GSAC doubleheader that begins at noon.
 
 
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