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Gale’s Three Home Runs
Lead Cougars to Convincing Baseball Win |
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Centerfielder Tristan Gale delivered the first three-home run game in program history on Wednesday, as Cougar baseball defeated Vanguard for the third time this week, winning 15-8. CSUSM is now a respectable 15-18 on the season, and has won 15 of its last 26 games since an 0-7 start. Wednesday’s game was close in the first couple innings, but as has been the case recently, CSUSM distanced itself as the game progressed. Cougar starter Lance McCormick came out throwing strikes, but was getting hit hard early. He allowed a pair of first-inning runs, putting the Cougars in an early 2-0 hole. But the lineup would quickly go to work. Tristan Gale began what would be a monster game by absolutely crushing a ball that cleared the centerfield fence with plenty of room to spare, bringing CSUSM to within one. McCormick got some help from Vanguard in the second, as Matt Voorhies was thrown out by Cougar catcher Terry Moritz trying to swipe third after a one-out double. After that, McCormick seemed to settle into a groove for the next couple innings. The same couldn’t be said for Vanguard starter Derek Craddock, who ran into trouble in the second. Terry Moritz led off the inning with ground-rule double that nearly left the yard. Juan Perez was then hit by a pitch, and Shane Sullenger drew a hard-fought walk. That loaded the bases for Ricardo Moran, who sliced a single just in front of the leftfielder to plate two runs. A costly error allowed the third run to score, giving the Cougars a 4-2 lead. Meanwhile, McCormick was cruising, throwing perfect innings in the 3rd and 4th. He continued to spot his pitches well, not walking a single hitter on the day. The Cougar lineup would blow the game open in the 4th. Jason Kutzler led off the inning with an infield single, and promptly stole second. Then, three straight hit-by-pitches plated one run and loaded the bases for Gale, who wasted no time in cashing in on Craddock’s mistakes. He drilled the first pitch he saw over the centerfield fence for a grand slam, his second home run on the day. Scott Shapiro followed that up with a bomb of his own, making the score 9-2. A few batters later, Kutzler’s second single of the inning would chase Craddock from the game. Reliever Brian Ducy got a ground ball, but an error kept the inning alive for Shane Sullenger, who drew a bases loaded walk to cap off the inning’s scoring. When the dust settled, the Cougars held an 11-2 lead. Despite a long rest, McCormick was still locked in when he took the mound in the 5th, recording yet another 1-2-3 inning. Tristan Gale led off the bottom of the inning, and continued his huge day. He once again jumped on the first pitch he saw, and hit it just over the right centerfield fence for his third homer of the day. The solo shot gave him 6 RBI’s in the contest, and he is the first player in program history to record 3 home runs in a game. Another run came in when a Terry Moritz single to center was misplayed. McCormick ran into trouble in the 6th, and with one run already in and two runners in scoring position Grant Harrell was called on in relief. Harrell, who is throwing almost exclusively overhand now after starting the season as a submariner, utilized some nasty breaking stuff to limit the damage to just one more run, and got the Cougars out of the inning with a healthy 13-4 lead. McCormick’s final line for the day: 5.1 innings pitched, 4 earned runs, 0 walks, and 4 strikeouts. He picked up the well-deserved win. It’s the second time in as many starts that McCormick pitched into the 6th inning. A couple errors allowed a pair of runs to score in the bottom of the 6th, with RBI’s courtesy of Moran and Shapiro. Vanguard threatened with the bases loaded and one out in the 7th, but reliever Eric Julienne struck out the final two hitters in the inning to keep the game at 15-5. Julienne struck out two more in pitching a scoreless 8th, and closer David Julio pitched a rocky 9th to close out a 15-8 win. The only bit of bad news on the day for the Cougars came in the 7th, when speedster Jason Hinton had to be carried off the field after suffering an injury trying to break up a double-play. CSUSM will head out on a road trip to take on Bethany on April 13th. |