Skip To Main Content

Azusa Pacific University Athletics

The Online Home of the Azusa Pacific Cougars
Celebration1 - 2025
Trinitee Carroll
6
CSU Monterey Bay CSUMB 4-2
7
Winner Azusa Pacific APU 2-3
CSU Monterey Bay CSUMB
4-2
6
Final
7
Azusa Pacific APU
2-3
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
CSU Monterey Bay CSUMB 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 6 16 0
Azusa Pacific APU 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 7 12 1

W: Frey, Joey (1-0) L: AGUIAR, Drew (0-1)

9
Winner CSU Monterey Bay CSUMB 5-2
8
Azusa Pacific APU 2-4
Winner
CSU Monterey Bay CSUMB
5-2
9
Final
8
Azusa Pacific APU
2-4
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 R H E
CSU Monterey Bay CSUMB 1 1 2 0 0 4 0 1 9 11 1
Azusa Pacific APU 2 1 3 2 0 0 0 0 8 11 2

W: COSTELLO, Giovanni (1-0) L: Hernandez, Adrian (0-2)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Escape Hatches Found

AZUSA, Calif. -- With their own respective doom looming nearby, Azusa Pacific and Cal State Monterey Bay each found their own escape hatches to avoid being swept, as the two teams split a nonconference doubleheader Saturday at the Cougar Baseball Complex with APU taking the first game, 7-6 in 10 innings, before the Otters rallied for an 9-8 victory in the nightcap.  

In the opening game, No. 19-ranked Cal State Monterey Bay was just 4 outs away from a 6-3 victory, rallying out of a 3-0 first-inning deficit with 6 consecutive runs over a 6-inning stretch, while holding the Cougars to just 3 hits in that same span.   Looking dead in the water, Azusa Pacific stunned the Otters when freshman Antonio Lujan picked a most strategic time for his first collegiate home run, launching a 2-out, 3-run home run deep over the left-field fence to knot the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Lujan's blast, 1 of 6 hits he had on the day, gave the Cougars new hope that they rode to victory.

After an uneventful ninth inning, and Cougar reliever Joey Frey retiring 3 straight Otters following a lead-off single in the top of the tenth, the Cougars took the stage in the bottom half of the inning to cap off the improbable comeback.  With 1 out, senior Danny Yanez singled through the right side.  Lujan followed with a single up the middle to push pinch-runner Eli Morgan around to third base.  Pinch hitter Luke Denos was intentionally walked to load the bases and set-up a force out at any base. However, another rookie, freshman Bryce Robbinette, kept the ball off the ground and instead lifted an opposite field fly ball to right field, deep enough to score Morgan from third base and cap the comeback win.  Frey picked up his first win of the season.

The Otters' pain of the setback was real, so they took great pleasure in returning the favor in the second game.  

Azusa Pacific punched around a pair of Otter pitchers for 9 hits and 8 runs to assume an 8-4 lead after 4 innings of a game scheduled to go 7.  Redshirt freshman Gabe Jacobs, making just the second appearance of his brief college career, fired 2.2 innings of 1-hit baseball, hanging the first scoreless frames of game on the Otters.  The Cougars were looking good, almost invincible, being just 5 outs away from an impressive and much-needed sweep of Cal State Monterey Bay.  However, with 1 out in the top of the sixth inning the Otters loaded the bases without the benefit of a hit, parlaying a pair of Matt Brock walks and a subsequent hit-by-pitch into a real threat.  Designated hitter Dominic Felice hit a grounder to deep second base and narrowly beat the throw of Cougar second baseman Dom Martinez to score Jacob Dressler from third base.  A Brock wild pitch pushed across KW Quilici for another run while putting a pair of Otters in scoring position, which catcher Omar Gastelum did not squander, lining a double to right-center to score both Felice and Jaeden Sheppard to tie the game at 8-8.

Cougar freshman pitcher Adrian Hernandez came out of the bullpen to quell the Otter attack with back-to-back strikeouts, but the damage was done, and this time the wind had turned into the sails of Cal State Monterey Bay.  Hernandez kept the Otters silent in the seventh inning, dancing around a 2-out single.  However, he surrendered a 1-out walk to Felice in the top of the eighth, and when he uncorked a wild pitch, Felice took full advantage, racing from first to third on the errant offering.  After a Gastelum strike out, Max Farfan ripped a 2-out double to right-center to easily plate Felice with what eventually proved to be the game-winning run.   

The rest was up to Otter reliever Giovannie Costello, who came on in the sixth inning and proceeded to retire 9 of the 10 Cougars he faced, striking out 4 in the process to pick up his first win of the young season.  Meanwhile, Hernandez suffered his second defeat despite surrendering just 2 hits and striking out 3 while dealing to 11 Otters.

It was a Cougar legacy kind of day for Azusa Pacific.  Lujan, whose dad Mike was the Cougar centerfielder back in 1987 and 1988, finished the doubleheader going 6-for-9 at the plate with 5 RBIs and a run scored.  He is now batting .563 (9-for-16) on the season.  Redshirt freshman Jacob Hayes, whose mother Shannon Solway Hayes, played for the Cougar women's basketball team from 1992 to 1994, was 3-for-9 with a double and a home run, a 2-run shot in the second game that gave the Cougars a 2-1 first-inning lead.  It was his team-leading second home run of the season.  Yanez was 4-for-9 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored to go along with a double.

With the split, Azusa Pacific moves to 2-4 on the season.  The Cougars are scheduled to be back on the diamond when they open PacWest play against Chaminade in a 4-game series beginning Thursday (Feb. 13) with a single game at 5 p.m. at the Cougar Baseball complex.


 
Print Friendly Version