AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific wasted no time bouncing back from Thursday's tournament-opening defeat, scoring seven runs as the visiting team in the top of the first inning of Friday's elimination game against Chico State in an eventual 17-3 win over the Wildcats.
Junior shortstop Mychael Goudreau went 6-for-7 as the Cougars' leadoff hitter to ignite the offense, tying the school-record while becoming the fifth player in program history (and first since 1992) to register six hits in a game. Azusa Pacific's 23 hits and eight doubles also measured as a season-high as the Cougars eliminated Chico State from the six-team, double-elimination tournament.
After watching his offense put up seven runs in the top of the first, Layne Henderson fired seven innings of one-run, five-hit pitching while recording 11 strikeouts to pick up the win and improve to 7-2 on the season.
With the win, Azusa Pacific improved to 40-10 on the season, the sixth 40-win season in program history and only the second time the program has posted back-to-back 40-win seasons, matching the Cougars' 2007 and 2008 teams in accomplishing consecutive 40-win campaigns.
What It Means: The No. 2-seeded Cougars advance to another day of regional tournament play, taking on a to-be-determined opponent in a 3:00 p.m. elimination game on Saturday, May 19. Chico State's season comes to a close at 31-24, as the Wildcats became the first team eliminated in the West Regional Tournament for the second consecutive year.
How It Happened: Batting in the leadoff spot for the first time since the second-to-last day of the regular season, Goudreau singled up the middle to lead off the game and scored the first of seven Azusa Pacific runs in the top of the first. Freshman catcher Aaron Roose landed the most damaging blow of the outburst with a bases-clearing two-out double which doubled a 3-0 lead and was followed by Goudreau's second hit of the inning, an RBI double to right center that pushed the lead to 7-0.
Chico State's only run off Henderson was R.J. Hassey's leadoff home run on the first pitch of the second inning, but Henderson settled in for five more shutout frames while the offense added single runs in the third and fourth innings on Joseph Quire, Jr.'s solo home run and Sean Aspinall's fourth-inning RBI double.
Austin Russ and Grant Gamble hit run-scoring doubles to highlight a four-run sixth inning, pushing the lead to 13-1, and Pablo O'Connor led off a three-run seventh with his 16th home run of the season, an opposite-field solo shot to right field. O'Connor added an RBI single in the eighth inning to extend the lead to 17-1 before Chico State scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth for the final 17-3 margin.
Goudreau led the way with a 6-for-7 effort, and Aspinall (4-for-4) was among four others who registered multiple hits for the Cougars.
What's Next: The only thing Azusa Pacific knows about its next game is that it takes place at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, as the opponent depends on if four teams remain after the second day of the tournament, or if five teams remain. Either way, the game will be an elimination game for both teams.
Beyond The Box Score: Of Azusa Pacific's six 40-win seasons, head coach Paul Svagdis has overseen five of them, including both of the Cougars' back-to-back 40-win campaigns (2007-08 and now 2017-18)… Goudreau's program-record six-hit performance was his 16th multi-hit game of the season, and he has reached base safely in 29 consecutive games… Three other Cougars have reached base streaks of 11 games or more, including Justin Gomez (18 games), O'Connor (12 games), and Quire (11 games)… Azusa Pacific entered the regional tournament ranked fifth in Division II in total home runs, and the Cougars have added three so far in the regional to increase the season tally to 84… Henderson has reached double-digit strikeouts in three of his 11 starts this year.
Postgame Press Conference
Video Highlights
