Box Score FRESNO, Calif. – What had the potential to be a pitcher's duel, turned out to be an offensive explosion. 

Fresno Pacific's bats did enough early damage and their pitching did the rest as they handed the Cougars a 10-2 defeat on Thursday evening.

Wilson Ashford earned his league leading fifth win of the season as he went 7.2 innings where he struck out 12 and walked just two during his 121-pitch effort. 

Josh Staumont, who entered the contest with one the best ERAs (1.21) in the PacWest's and the lowest opponents' batting average (.125) in the league, was touched up for nine earned runs and five hits. He did strikeout seven but issued six walks. 

The home team jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first inning. The Sunbirds added to their total with four runs each in the third and fourth innings respectively. While the Cougars bullpen combo of Trent Thompson and Joe Manzi shut the Sunbirds out the rest of the way, too much damage had already been done.

Ashford limited the Cougars to just three hits and five total base runners after six innings on the bump. The four hits marks a season low. The Cougars had recorded at least nine hits in 15 straight games entering Thursday. Azusa Pacific only put one runner past second base through the first eight innings.

Jordan Brower hit his first homerun of the season in the ninth inning to break the shutout.

These same teams play a doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 4 p.m.