May 24, 2011

Box Score

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - LMU (27-25) stranded eight runners in a 5-0 loss at UC Santa Barbara (24-25) on Tuesday in the final midweek and road game of the 2011 season. UCSB's Nick Loredo fired a complete-game shutout, the first against the Lions since UCSB's Mario Hollands tossed one on March 6, 2009.

Loredo threw 113 pitches over the nine innings, allowing five hits and two walks while striking out four. LMU managed to put at least one runner on base in each of the first five innings, but Loredo consistently worked out of the jams. With the win in his first complete game of the year, Loredo improved to 4-3 on the season.

Sean Williams paced the UCSB offense, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a home run and two RBI. The homer was Williams' second of the year. Joe Wallace and Dan Camou each had two hits in the victory, as Wallace picked-up a RBI and Camou scored once.

Five different Lion hitters collected a hit, as Sean McIntyre doubled for LMU's lone extra-base hit. The sophomore left-handed batter also drew a walk, finishing 1-for-3 on the day.

The Lions used a total of four pitchers on Tuesday, as sophomore Matt Florer made his first career start. The lefty dealt four and two-thirds innings, allowing three runs on six hits and no walks while striking out four. Chris Eusebio pitched the next inning and a third, surrendering two hits and striking out three before handing the ball over to senior Jeremy Burrell. The right-hander allowed two runs over two-thirds of an inning before Ryan Hawthorne contributed the final inning and a third of relief.

After a scoreless three innings of play, UC Santa Barbara got the scoring started with a run in the fourth on a leadoff solo-home run from Williams. That lead extended to 3-0 after five when the Gauchos received RBI-singles from Ben Edelstein and Williams to plate Camou and Steven Moon. Camou and Moon had reached with back-to-back one-out singles earlier in the inning.

UCSB put the finishing touches on the victory in the seventh, scoring two more insurance runs to push the tally to 5-0. A one-out walk to Derek Eligio was followed by a two-out single from Williams two batters later, setting the table for a RBI-single from Mark Haddow. Haddow entered the game as the team-leader in virtually every offensive category, but finished just 1-for-4 with the RBI on Tuesday. Wallace capped the scoring run on the ensuing play, lining a RBI-double into left field to bring home Williams.

The Lions really could not get much going against Loredo down the stretch as the right-hander retired the final eight batters he faced en route to the complete-game shutout.

The Lions will return to action on Friday at 3 p.m. when they open a season-ending three-game West Coast Conference series with San Diego.