AZUSA, Calif. – Even with a day less than anticipated, the Azusa Pacific baseball squad still enjoyed a fine performance in their home opener.
The Cougars got all their runs with two outs as well as an outstanding pitching performance en route to their 15-4 win against Cal State San Bernardino.
Wednesday's game was originally scheduled for Thursday. The teams will now play a doubleheader on Thursday beginning at 3 p.m. The changes in the series were made because of expected rain to hit the southern California area in the coming days.
During the first two innings the Cougars offense was knocking on the door as they put runners in scoring position but couldn't bring anyone home. They broke through in the third inning with a pair of unearned runs with two outs. Quincy Quintero started the scoring when his double to deep centerfield brought home Adrian Tovalin. Michael Staudinger brought home Quintero with a line drive single up the middle.
Azusa Pacific starting pitcher Fairchild set down the first 11 batters before Lucas Martinez hit an opposite field homerun over the leftfield wall on a full count to cut the Azusa Pacific lead in half. The Cougars responded quite nicely in their half of the fourth inning, Tovalin started the scoring with an RBI single. Pablo O'Connor smacked a two-run homerun two pitches later then Justin Gomez took the very next pitch deep over the rightfield wall. In making their lead 6-1, the Cougars did all their scoring with two outs.
Cal State San Bernardino manufactured a run without a hit in the fifth inning. Kristain DeLaTorre hit a sacrifice fly to leftfield which score Tyler Van Marter, who earlier reach base on an error.
Azusa Pacific last runs, once again all with two outs, came in the seventh frame. Tovalin's RBI single scored Cam Bennett, then O'Connor crushed his second long ball of the night with a three-run shot. They continued to pile it on as Estrella, Sean Aspinall and Mychael Goudreau all had RBI base hits during a nine-run stanza.
The Coyotes rounded out the scoring with single runs in the eighth and ninth innings.
O'Connor's two homerun game highlighted the Cougar offense. The junior went 3-for-5 with five RBI and two runs scored. Estrella and Goudreau also posted three-hit games.
On the mound Fairchild went seven strong inning where he allowed just one base hit and struck out five in his 79-pitch effort.
