Cougar Baseball Loses Wild One to #13 Cal Baptist
2/20/08

Box Score

On the road against the #13 team in the nation, Cougar baseball took a lead into the bottom of the seventh - but couldn’t hold it, eventually losing a wild 15-11 affair.  The loss drops CSUSM to 6-8 on the season.

The story of Wednesday’s game was the same as it has been for much of this year.  CSUSM’s lineup is powerful, its pitching is improved, but the team defense just isn’t there right now.  The Cougars made five errors on Wednesday, surrendering a staggering 10 unearned runs.

Starter Jared Suwyn was the primary victim of the defense.  Making his first start of the season, the outstanding reliever went 4 2/3 innings, allowing just one earned run.  But 7 unearned runs ended his outing early.

Most of those came in the first, when a one-out error kept the inning alive, and Cal Baptist went on to score 5 runs.  A bases-loaded double by Eddie Quevedo was the big blow, and Steve Goins and Jake Johnson also had RBI singles.

The Cougars got one back in the second, as Terry Moritz led off with a double, and eventually score on a double-play.  CSUSM got two more in the third, with Louie Russo and Jason Hinton leading off with singles, and they were drove home by a Ricardo Moran groundout and Austin Way base hit.

Cal Baptist took advantage of a leadoff error in the fourth to extend the lead to 7-3, but the Cougars got those two runs back the following inning.  With the bases loaded, Moritz delivered a single, plating a pair of runs.

The up-and-down game continued in the bottom of the sixth, with Cal Baptist rallying to score a pair of unearned runs.  But CSUSM answered with three in the seventh, taking their first lead of the ballgame.  A Suwyn single and Austin Coleman walk started the inning off, and RBI singles by Mike Pena, Johnny Omahen, and Moran gave the Cougars the lead.  With no outs in the inning, CSUSM was threatening to blow the game open – but a double-play and groundout ended the inning with no further damage, which would prove fatal for CSUSM.

Cal Baptist scored three in the bottom of the seventh to re-take the lead, keyed by a two-out two-RBI Dominic Zuniga single.  They’d manufacture two more in the eighth, and closer Brandon Daily pitched around a ninth inning error to pick up the save.