AZUSA, Calif. – Power bats and a power arm.
Azusa Pacific continued to pop homeruns while the pitching was on-point in their 5-2 victory against Concordia on Friday evening.
Heading into Saturday's doubleheader the Cougars improve to a season best four games over .500 at 22-18 overall record and a 17-9 mark in league games. Concordia moves to 20-24 and 16-14 respectively.
The Cougars announced their offensive presence with authority in the first inning. Adrian Tovalin smashed the first pitch he saw deep into left centerfield for his PacWest leading 15th homerun of the season. Pablo O'Connor didn't let his teammate too far ahead in the league's homerun chase. The sophomore creamed the first offering from Brett Barker well beyond the right field wall for his 13th long ball of the year to give Azusa Pacific a 2-0 lead on the back-to-back shots.
Justin Gomez, who start the second frame with the Cougars third straight extra base hit, scored on a Cam Bennett sacrifice fly to give his team a three-run cushion. In the fifth inning the Cougars added to their lead when O'Connor smacked an RBI double down the leftfield line which allowed Bennett to cross the plate.
While the Cougars were building their four-run lead, Azusa Pacific starting pitcher Jonny Reid was throwing one of his best games of the season. The lefthander didn't allow a base hit until the fourth inning while striking out five and limiting the Eagles to just two hits until the seventh inning.
During Concordia's portion of the seventh frame, the visitors scored twice to cut their deficit in half. However, the Cougars bounced right back as Mychael Goudreau took a 1-0 pitch to lead off the inning and just like that the home team took a 5-2 lead.
Concordia had just one base runner in the final two innings.
Reid left the game after eight innings where he punched out six batters and allowed just five hits in his 104-pitch effort. Billy Sanford got the last three outs for his fourth save of the year.
Both O'Connor and Steven Garrett each had two-hit games with O'Connor driving in two to aid in the Cougars offense. Bennett swiped two bases to up his team high total to eight on the season.
