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Defense Falters As Baseball
Is Downed by CSU San Bernardino |
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Early errors proved too much to overcome for Cougar baseball on Friday, as the squad was defeated by Cal State San Bernardino by a score of 11-4. The loss drops CSUSM to 10-15 on the year, while San Bernardino picks up their 20th win. Cougar starter Scott Shapiro took the tough-luck loss, dropping his record to 0-2 on the year. San Bernardino jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first three innings, with all five runs of the unearned variety. In the second, a two-on two-out error allowed the first two runs to cross the plate; and the following inning, another error opened up the floodgates for three more runs. Shapiro didn't help his own cause either, walking six in his three innings. The Cougar bullpen proved ineffective as well, as three relievers combined to allow six runs (all earned) in five innings of work. Meanwhile, San Bernardino's pitching staff had no such troubles - at least until the game was out-of-hand. Starter Matt Long threw two scoreless innings before giving way to the bullpen, which continued to hold the Cougars scorless until the 8th. In that 8th inning, Scott Shapiro greeted reliever Eric Meyerholtz with a long home run to right center, breaking up the shutout. Austin Way followed that up with a single, and after a Spencer Pardon walk, a Terry Moritz base hit loaded the bases. Third baseman Matt Castro then delivered the RBI single, and Ricardo Moran and Tristan Gale drew a bases-loaded walks to make the score 11-4. On the day, Gale was 1-for-4 with that walk and RBI. He's second on the team with a .350 average, and tied for third with 18 RBI. The only Cougar with a higher batting average is Shapiro, whose 2-for-5 performance improved his average to .376. He also lowered his ERA to 3.42. The Cougars will look to get revenge on CSUSB tomorrow, as they'll face each other again at 1:00 PM. |