AZUSA, Calif. — Azusa Pacific baseball beat Northwest Nazarene 8-2 Monday afternoon to secure the opening series split between the two teams. The Cougars saw six strong innings from Brendan Dixon in his first outing of the season while the offense was jump started by a Will Stroud bases-clearing double that helped the Cougars to an eight-run day on nine total hits.

How it Happened: In the top of the first, Dixon allowed a solo home run to Parker Price, his second of the series, to left center field to give the Nighthawks the early 1-0 advantage. 

The Cougars responded in the second with a five-run inning, their largest of the season thus far. A leadoff double by Spencer Rasmussen started the rally before Casey Dykstra was hit by a pitch and Brett Soria walked to load the bases. Stroud's line drive double down the right field line would empty the bases to give Azusa Pacific its first lead of the game, 3-1. Tido Robles knocked Stroud in from third with a single to right field before Aaron Roose's long single off the right field wall continued the rally making it first and third. Casey O'Laughlin then tallied his first RBI as a Cougar with a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield that scored Robles to make it 5-1.

After retiring the side in order in the second, Dixon struck out Price, who bested him earlier, to end the third with a runner stranded at first. Dixon allowed a two-out single in the fourth but once again left him there to get another zero on the board for the Cougars. The offense would scratch one across in the bottom of the frame on an RBI triple from O'Laughlin that scored Roose all the way from first to up the lead to 6-1.

Dixon continued his prior momentum into the fifth, after allowing a leadoff single he induced a ground ball double play before ending the inning with another groundball. He made quick work of the Nighthawks in his sixth and final frame as well, retiring the side on just 11 pitches which included his fourth strikeout of the outing to top it off.

Azusa Pacific added to its total with an RBI hit by pitch from Dykstra with the bases loaded to put the Cougars up six through six innings. The Cougars went to game one starter, A.J. Woodall in the seventh who stranded a pair in scoring position with back-to-back strikeouts before handing the ball to a pair of freshman in Grayson Gifford and Taylor Ouellette to close it out.

Gifford allowed a leadoff walk in the eighth which eventually came around to score on an RBI groundout but recorded a hitless frame in his collegiate debut. After Roose reached for the third time in the game, shortstop Omar Lopez doubled him in to give the Cougars an 8-2 lead through eight innings.

Then Ouellette, a redshirt freshman, induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the game in his first appearance on the mound as a Cougar. With the win, Azusa Pacific secures the series split as both teams are now 2-2 overall.

By the Numbers: Azusa Pacific's starting pitching in the series recorded a 1.77 ERA after allowing just four earned runs in 20.1 innings total across the four game series. None of the four starters allowed more than one earned run in their outing. Today's game was the first time since February 4, 2020 the Cougars did not hit a home run in a game played at the Cougar Baseball Complex after hitting at least one in every home game last season (2021). 

Up Next: The Cougars will host No. 4 ranked Colorado Mesa in a four-game series set to begin this Thursday, February 10th at the Cougar Baseball Complex. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Thursday. Fans are allowed at the games and admission is FREE, if you are unable to attend you can watch our FREE live stream here, or follow along with live stats here.