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Saturday Hit Parade: Baseball Bashes Principia 24-3 |
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After nearly upsetting #2 Azusa Pacific on Friday, Cougar baseball took out its frustrations on Principia College of Illinois, winning . Austin Way led the barrage with 3 home runs and 8 RBI. Principia got on the board first, taking advantage of a couple gift-wrapped opportunities. Cougar starting pitcher Chris Skaalen, who tends to alternate between being “effectively wild” and “dangerously wild,” walked the leadoff batter, and hit another to put two on. A couple passed balls allowed the first run to score, and a ball to the gap scored the second. But the Cougar lineup struck right back. Ricardo Moran led off with a sharp single, and Louie Russo, who has hit his way into the starting lineup as of late, banged a double off the left-field wall. A Tristan Gale sac fly got the first run home, and a Terry Moritz single off the third-base bag to tie the game up. Skaalen worked around an error to strand a pair of runners in the second, and in the bottom of the inning, the Cougars took their first lead of the ballgame. Moran delivered an RBI double, and after a walk, Austin Way extended his hitting streak to eight games with a booming three-run homer to right. It's his sixth home run during the streak, and tenth overall. But he was far from done. The Cougars continued to pile on runs. Gale doubled, Moritz walked, and Jackson Chapelone was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. That set the stage for Austin Coleman, who would be the hottest hitting Cougars if it wasn’t for Way, and Coleman gave a fastball a free ride to San Marcos Boulevard, just demolishing a grand slam to make the game a 10-2 laugher. Skaalen settled down in the third, harnessing his hard fastball and wicked 12-to-6 curveball to strike out a pair. He finished a solid outing with 4 innings pitched, 4 hits, 3 runs (1 earned), 2 walks, and 4 strikeouts. Austin Way struck again in the bottom of the third turning on a knuckleball from reliever Eric Lindstrom and depositing it over the fence in right for his team-leading 11th home run. His 12th would come the following inning, in grand fashion. With the bases loaded, Way drove a virtually identical shot over the rightfield fence, giving him a career-high RBI total of 8, and putting the Cougars up 16-3. With the game well in-hand, Coach Pugh had a little fun, giving rare at-bats to pitchers Johnny Holtman, Eric Julienne, Auggie Richardson, Lance McCormick, David Julio, and Grant Harrell. Holtman drove in two with a double off the wall in center, Julienne nearly beat out a grounder, Richardson was hit by a pitch, while Harrell, Julio, and McCormick took some impressive cuts but ultimately struck out. On the mound, the Cougar bullpen shut down Principia’s lineup in impressively (and mercifully) quick fashion. Jeff Stephenson, Mike Raedel, and McClinton Heil combined to throw 5 innings of 3-hit shutout baseball. Omahen closed out the scoring with a two-run homer in the ninth, bringing the eye-popping score to 24-3. It’s the largest margin of victory in the history of Cougar baseball. CSUSM will face a tougher test on Monday, when they take on San Diego Christian at 6:30 PM at Escondido High.
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