May 29, 2011

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - Nick Truhan singled home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to complete LMU's comeback from a four-run deficit for a 5-4 walk-off victory and a series sweep over San Diego in the season finale for both teams Sunday afternoon at Page Stadium in Los Angeles. Truhan finished with a career-high three hits and Matt Koch drove in a pair of runs to lift the Lions (30-25, 11-10 WCC) to a 30-win season for the second time in three years under Head Coach Jason Gill.

On a day in which LMU honored its eight seniors in a pre-game ceremony, the elder statesmen all played big roles in the Lions' second walk-off victory of the weekend. Koch finished 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI, Jonathan Johnson scored twice to go along with a hit and RBI, Jason Barmasse and Evan Simonitsch each collected a hit, and Chris Eusebio (2-1) picked up the win in relief of Jeremy Burrell.

LMU trailed in all three weekend games against the Toreros (22-31, 11-10), only to rally in each contest to record the team's second weekend sweep of WCC play and its fourth overall. In this one, USD jumped out to an early 4-0 lead but four LMU relievers - Matt Florer, Ryan Hawthorne, Burrell, and Eusebio - combined to allowed just two hits over the final 6 2/3 innings to enable the comeback.

After the Lions rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the eight on Koch's 40th RBI of the season, they loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth. Sean McIntyre flared a single to left on the first pitch to put the winning run on and Barmasse, after failing to lay down a sacrifice bunt, battled back to earn a walk before Simonitsch followed with a perfectly-placed bunt of his own, beating it out for a single to load the bases with nobody out. On an 0-2 count, Truhan bounced a high chopper off the plate that shortstop Julian Duran could do nothing with as McIntyre slid home with the winning run.

Eusebio (2-1) picked up the win with one inning of work. He entered the game in the ninth after Burrell had hit the lead-off batter but stranded the go-ahead runner at first to set up LMU's winning ninth inning.

Aaron Griffin got the start for the Lions but left after just 2 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. He allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk but LMU's bullpen picked up the slack as Florer tossed three innings of one-hit relief, followed by 2 2/3 innings from Hawthorne.

James Pazos (3-5) took the loss for USD, allowing one run on four hits and a walk in 2/3 innings. Paul Sewald carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and left after giving up two runs on four hits while striking out five in five innings. Paul Paez pitched the middle 2 1/3 frames, conceding two unearned runs on three hits.

For the third straight game, USD took the lead, scoring in the first for the second day in a row on a pair of doubles by Kevin Muno and Kris Bryant. The Toreros continued to jump all over Griffin, knocking him out of the game in the third after an RBI double by Zack Kometani and a two-run single by Corey LeVier made it 4-0.

The Lion defense came to the rescue in the fifth as USD put runners on first and second with one out. Scott Schauer lifted a ball down the rightfield line that would have scored at least one run but Simonitsch went fully horizontal to make the diving catch.

McIntyre's clean liner up the middle with one out in the fifth broke up Sewald's no-hitter and Barmasse followed with a double to right-center, only for Tony Strazzara's relay throw to the plate to gun down McIntyre trying to score.

Trailing 4-0 after 5 ½ innings, the Lions would get on the board with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, thanks in part to a pair of Torero errors. Truhan led off the inning with a single to right and came home when Johnson doubled off the wall in left. After Muno made a long run and diving catch on Zac Fujimoto's fly ball to right-center, Koch drove in LMU's second run with a single to left. Back-to-back errors brought home a third run as Alex Guthrie followed with a single that got away from LeVier in left, moving the runners to second and third before Kometani threw away an attempted pickoff at third, enabling Koch to motor home and make it 4-3.

Another USD miscue in the eighth put the Lions in position to tie things up. Johnson's hustle put him at second after his grounder slipped through Strazzara's legs at second and he advanced to third on Fujimoto's groundout. Koch, who drove in a run in all three games, then greeted Pazos with an RBI single up the middle to tie the game.

LMU's sweep of USD was its second in a row at home, having also taken all three games at Page Stadium from the Toreros in 2009, only for USD to sweep in San Diego last season. With the win, LMU finishes the 2011 season in a three-way tie for third place in the WCC alongside USD and Portland.