AZUSA, Calif. – Even Richard Dreyfuss would be proud of how Azusa Pacific handled the Sharks. The famed actor, who is arguably best known for his role in Jaws, didn't have anywhere close to success with the fish that the Cougars had in their four-game series against the Hawaiian Island school.
The Cougars wrapped-up a sweep against Hawaii Pacific with a 10-0 victory on Saturday afternoon.
With their second straight shutout of the Sharks, the Azusa Pacific pitching staff has run their consecutive scoreless inning streak to 20 straight.
In Saturday's win Kale Morton went the first six innings and allowed six hits while striking out a pair before leaving the game to the bullpen. The trio of Billy Sanford, David May and Wyatt Wood kept the visitors off balance as they have three hits in their final attempts at the plate.
At the plate Pablo O'Connor continued to rake as he raised his season batting average to .429 with a 2-for-2 afternoon. Each of his hits were a homerun as he drove-in seven runs.
Post Game Interview with Pablo O'Connor
With the win the No. 9 Cougars have equaled their win total from last season in upping their overall record to 30-4. They remain in the PacWest driver seat with a 17-3 mark.
After a quickly moving first three innings, the Cougars got some momentum in the middle third of the contest in cruising to the win. In the fourth and fifth stanzas Azusa Pacific scored twice each. The first two runs came via a Pablo O'Connor two-run homerun. The following frame, O'Connor hit a sacrifice fly and Adrian Tovalin hit an RBI single to pad the lead to 4-0.
The game was blown wide open in the sixth inning as the home team scored six times and six hits. Mychael Goudreau hit a run scoring base knock for the initial run then Cam Bennett drew a bases loaded walk to keep the merry-go-round rolling. Four pitches later O'Connor hit a 2-1 offering deep over the left centerfield wall from a grand slam. The outfielder now has a career best 16 long balls which also leads Tolavin (14) for the conference lead. It is also the second straight game in which the Cougars hit a grand slam.
Azusa Pacific hosts defending league champion California Baptist on Thursday and Friday for the first two games of their conference series. The final two contests will be in Riverside, Calif. on Saturday.
