AZUSA, Calif. — Azusa Pacific was unable to overcome an early deficit in which Concordia took a four-run lead in the third inning and never looked back, winning game one 17-8. Down 4-1 in the second game, the Cougars used back-to-back-to-back home runs from Aaron Roose, Osvaldo Tovalin, and Joseph Kim to tie the game. Senior Nick Estrella did his part in an 11-strikeout performance in six innings as the Cougars would go onto win 6-4 to split the doubleheader.
How it Happened (Game 1): The Cougars opened up scoring on the day as Joseph Kim hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the first inning giving Azusa Pacific a 2-0 lead.
The Eagles answered right back though in the top of the second inning with their own two-run home run off starting pitcher David Hays. Concordia broke the 2-2 tie in the top of the third inning in which they scored four runs, three courtesy of a Bailey Collins three-run home run.
Kim singled in a run in the bottom half of the third inning to add to his RBI total making it a 6-3 deficit.
Declan Kearney came into the game in relief of Hays in the top of the fourth inning, in which he pitched a 1-2-3 inning on two strikeouts in the fourth and a scoreless frame in the fifth. The Eagles began to establish their lead in the sixth inning as they tallied four runs on three hits, making the score 10-3.
The Cougars would score three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning in small ball fashion. The first run of the inning came as Jeffery Castillo scored on a wild pitch followed by an Osvaldo Tovalin sacrifice fly in which Spencer Rasmussen scored. The inning was capped off by a run-scoring infield single by Kim, his fourth RBI of the day. The score heading into the seventh inning was 10-6 Eagles.
In the seventh, Casey Dykstra hit a solo homerun to deep right field, narrowing the Eagles lead to three. That would be as close as the Cougars would get. In the top of the eighth inning Concordia would blow the game open with a seven-run inning in which they tallied six hits. The biggest of the six was another Collins three-run home run that made it 13-7. After the inning though, the Eagles lead was extended to 10, 17-7.
In the top of the ninth inning, in relief, Shane Cronin would throw a scoreless inning while stranding two Eagles on base. The Cougars capitalized on a Concordia error and added one final run on a Castillo RBI single but would fall 17-8 in game one.
How it Happened (Game 2): Estrella started the second game on the mound for the Cougars and held the Eagles hitless in the first two innings while striking out three.
The Cougars scored first again in game two, as Dykstra hit an opposite field solo home run off the scoreboard.
Concordia put up four runs in the top of the third, as Collins capped off the inning with a two-RBI triple to give the Eagles a commanding 4-1 lead.
The Eagles lead would not last long, however. With one out in the bottom of the third, Roose hit a long solo home run that cleared in net in left field at the Cougar Baseball Complex. Tovalin followed right behind him with his own impressive solo home run that cleared the center field fence just to the right of the 410 feet sign. The Cougars were not done there, as Kim also hit a solo shot to right center as the Cougars went back-to-back-to-back to tie the game up at four-apiece.
The Cougar offense would continue to stay hot in the bottom of the fourth inning as they added two more runs to take the lead 6-4. The two-run lead came from an Aaron Roose two-RBI double with the bases loaded. Roose drove in three of the six Cougar runs in game two.
This was all the run-support Estrella needed, as Concordia would not score a run the rest of the game. After a scoreless fourth, Estrella struck out the side in the top of the fifth, all of which were caught looking. He then struck out four batters in the sixth inning as one Concordia batter reached base on a dropped third strike. Estrella ended the sixth inning with a swinging strikeout in which he got seven outs in a row via the strikeout. The Cougars led the Eagles 6-4 going into the final seventh inning.
Azusa Pacific would hand the ball to Dykstra who recorded his third save of the season for the Cougars with a 1-2-3 inning. He struck out the final batter of the game to secure the series victory over Concordia.
Inside the Boxscore: The Cougars finished the day with six homers across both games. Four of their six hits came from home runs in the game two victory.
The runs given up by the Cougars in the first game partly came from three big scoring innings from the Eagles. This included four runs in the third, four runs in the sixth, and seven runs in the eighth.
Across both games the Cougars struck out 22 batters. Half of those came from game-two starter Estrella as he struck out 11 batters in six innings.
What's Next: The Cougars will face conference opponent Point Loma (6-6) next Friday April 2. The doubleheader will take place at home in the Cougar Baseball Complex. The first game is set to begin at 12:00 PM with the second game scheduled to begin around 3:00 PM. Both games of the double header can be streamed for free here.
