AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific baseball lost a pair of games to Biola to close out the season, dropping game one 11-9 in 11 innings before falling in game two, 10-4. The Cougars finish the regular season with a 34-16 overall record and 23-9 in Pacific West Conference (PacWest) play.
Spencer Rasmussen's three-homer day wasn't enough as a whole for the Cougars. The Eagles stole both games late and squashed Azusa Pacific's hopes of celebrating another PacWest Conference title.
Game One: Biola 11, Azusa Pacific 9 (11 innings)
The Cougars and Eagles went back-and-forth for the third straight game in the series as it was Biola jumped out in front early, starting with a two-run top of the first. Starting pitcher Steven Silvas, who was making his first appearance since March 19th, allowed an RBI double and an RBI groundout in the first before tossing two scoreless innings in which he retired four of the seven batters he faced via strikeout.
Azusa Pacific grabbed its first lead of the game in the third when Rasmussen drove in three with one swing, sending his 14th home run of the season to right field. The Eagles would tie it in the fourth on a solo home run before Brett Soria crushed his first homer of the season over the nets in right field for a two-run shot to make it 5-3 Cougars. A frame later, Rasmussen lined one to deep right-center for his second long ball of the game, this one a two-run homer that gave the Cougars a 7-3 advantage.
Biola would turn things around in the seventh, after a towering pop-up in the infield found the ground in between a pair of defenders the Eagles took advantage with Andrew Lujan's second game-tying home run, a three-run shot that tied things up at 7-apiece.
The Cougars took a two-run advantage in the eighth inning via RBIs from David Hays and Roose to make it 9-7 but the Eagles would tie it in the ninth scoring a pair off of Korey Shepard.Â
After getting the first two batters on in the bottom of the tenth, Azusa Pacific would go down on strikes three consecutive times to end the threat, before Biola would take the lead in the top of the 11th with a two-run home run from Tyler Baca. The Cougars were retired in order in the bottom half to lose 11-9 in 11 innings.
Game Two: Biola 10, Azusa Pacific 4
In game two, it was Azusa Pacific that got out to the early lead after Rasmussen launched his third home run of the day in the first inning to put his team up 2-0. It was his 16th jack of the season, tying him with teammate Tido Robles for the conference lead. Will Stroud drove in his seventh run of the series with a single in the third to up the advantage to 3-0 in favor of the Cougars.
For the third straight game, the Eagles came storming back and for the second straight day, they tallied 10 unanswered runs. A two-run home run and a run scored on an error tied the game at three-apiece before a two-RBI single with two outs in the sixth put Biola up for the first time of the game, 5-3. That would end the outing of starting pitcher Isaac Mendez who tossed 5.2 innings allowing just two earned runs and striking out a season-high seven in the loss.
The Eagles would break it open in the top of the seventh with five more runs, all coming with two outs. Biola saw five batters reach with two outs which plated five runs to add the big insurance runs.
Azusa Pacific received an RBI single from Omar Lopez in the seventh but wasn't able to keep its rally alive losing game two by a final score of 10-4.
By the Numbers: After reaching in both games today, Roose's reached base streak is now at 29 straight games. During the streak, he's raised his batting average from .239 to .337 and has a hit in 25 of the 29 games including 14 multi-hit games.
Up Next: The Cougars now await the NCAA DII Selection Show this Sunday, May 15th which will air on NCAA.com at 7 p.m. (PT). Six teams will be in the NCAA West Regional while the top two seeds should be set to host their sides of each bracket from Thursday, May 19th to Saturday, May 21st. Azusa Pacific was named the No. 2 seed in the region in the latest rankings (through games on May 8th), which is subject to change with the official brackets announced this Sunday. Nonetheless, the Cougars should be in line for their fifth straight postseason appearance.
