SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Azusa Pacific baseball continued its winning ways with a 5-1 win against Westmont, Tuesday afternoon. The Cougars have won five straight over the course of the last five days.

How it Happened: The Cougars opened the scoring in the second inning when freshman Omar Lopez doubled down the right-field line with two outs, scoring Joseph Kim from third. 

Cougar starting pitcher Brendan Dixon dealt through traffic in the first inning, leaving the bases loaded before retiring eight of the next nine Warrior batters and punching out five from the second inning through the fourth. After his four scoreless frames, he allowed a run in the fifth before exiting the game with first and third with one out.

Reliever David Wylie precisely came into the game an induced a ground ball double play to get out of the jam keeping the game knotted up at one-apiece.

The Cougars kept their momentum rolling into the top of the sixth inning, after a single with one out from Osvaldo Tovalin, Kim doubled with two outs to keep the rally alive. Senior Griffen Herrera then singled through the left side scoring both Tovalin and Kim with two outs to give Azusa Pacific a 3-1 lead.

Wylie continued his dominance in the sixth and seventh innings, retiring all six he faced. Wylie finished his outing facing seven Warrior batters while recording eight outs and striking out two. He has become a main stay out of the Cougar bullpen as this was his team-high fourth appearance this season.

The Cougars added one insurance run in the seventh courtesy of a two-out single from Aaron Roose that scored Lopez increasing the lead to 4-1. Azusa Pacific scratched another across in the ninth with two outs as junior Casey Dykstra singled, stole second and scored on a Tyus Santa Anna RBI single.

Freshman Korey Shepard recorded a scoreless inning in the eighth inning, he now has a total of three innings on the season and has yet to allow a run. While another freshman Isaac Mendez recorded an impressive scoreless ninth that included two strikeouts.

With the 5-1 victory over Westmont Tuesday, Azusa Pacific officially leads the season series versus Westmont three games to two. The Cougars will go into PacWest action winners of five in a row, improving their overall record to 7-2 on the season.

Up Next: Azusa Pacific will travel to take on cross-town rival Biola on Friday, March 19 to open up conference play. The first game of the doubleheader is scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m. with the second following around 3:00 p.m.