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Missed
Opportunities Spell Tough 1-0 Loss for Baseball |
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In nine innings on Tuesday, Cal
State San Marcos baseball allowed just three hits, committed no
errors, and got seven hits of their own. Given that, you’d assume the
team cruised to a victory. But
the Cougars were snake bitten against Vanguard, missing out on
numerous opportunities en route to a brutal 1-0 loss.
CSUSM falls to 8-10-1 on the year. Starting pitcher Jared Suwyn
took arguably the least-deserved loss in the short history of CSUSM
baseball. The righty
was brilliant for his second consecutive start, shutting Vanguard
down for seven innings. Suwyn
has been in a groove for most of this season, locating and mixing
his pitches well. While
he’s capable of striking out hitters in bunches, Suwyn’s
hard-breaking slider lends itself best to getting groundballs.
On Tuesday, he struck out five while allowing just three hits
and three walks. But in the fifth inning,
Vanguard strung together two of those hits to produce what would be
the game’s only run. A
leadoff single came around to score when the next hitter doubled,
making it a 1-0 game. San Marcos certainly had its
chances. The Cougars
left a startling 11 runners on base, including the bases loaded in
the sixth. CSUSM’s
second-biggest chance came in the ninth, when a two-out Dane
Ponciano double suddenly put the tying run in scoring position.
Ricardo Moran followed with a single, but the runner was held
at third. A groundout
closed out the game. For their part, the Vanguard
pitching staff was very effective for all nine innings.
Starter Matt Curtis threw 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball, and
reliever Jordan Wishmeyer blanked the Cougars for 3 2/3 innings to
pick up the save.
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