Box Score

The LMU baseball team (27-17-1) battled #6 UC Santa Barbara (31-10-1) to a 6-6 tie over 13 complete innings, with the game, which was played at UCSB's Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, being called due to darkness. The Lions did not lead until the top of the 11th when it scored one time to take a 6-5 lead into the home-half of the inning. Down to its last strike, UCSB managed to draw a bases-loaded walk to even the tally and send the game further into the night.

Both teams registered 13 hits, with Sean Watkins leading the way with a 3-for-7 day out of the leadoff spot. The Gauchos robbed what could have been game-winning hits on two different occasions in extra-innings as Andrew Calica sprinted and dove in straight away centerfield just shy of the warning track to rob Tanner Donnels of an extra-base hit and an RBI in the top of the 10th inning before Cameron Newell took a two-run homer away from David Fletcher in the top of the 12th.

Michael Silva, one of eight pitchers used by the Lions on Tuesday, held a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the 11th after David Edwards, running at second base with two out in the top of the frame, stole third and scored on an errant throw trying to catch him stealing. Silva walked the leadoff man, one of five walks issued by the right-hander, before a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. LMU intentionally walked Newell to set up the double play, but a comebacker from pinch-hitter Dempsey Grover moved the runners to second and third at the cost of the second out. After falling behind 2-0 to Billy Fredrick, LMU elected to intentionally walk the batter to load the bases for Austin Bush. With nowhere to put Bush, Silva got ahead 1-2, but misfired on the next three pitches, forcing in the tying run with the walk.

While one could certainly say that LMU had a chance to win in the 11th, were it not for one of UCSB's three errors in the game, LMU would have lost the game in the ninth. With the Lions trailing by two runs at 5-3 and hitting against Kyle Nelson in the top of the ninth, Donnels ripped a leadoff double into the right-centerfield gap. Edwards followed with a strikeout, but Joe Christian reached on an error charged to right fielder Luke Swenson that allowed LMU to put runners at second and third with only one out. With the UCSB closer, Robby Nesovic, now in the game, pinch-hitter Jamey Smart grounded a ball to third base to plate the first run and cut the deficit in half, but the run came at the premium cost of LMU's second out. If Swenson would have caught the fly ball down the right field line, the game would have been over, but instead the inning continued for pinch-hitter Jimmy Jack. Jack came up clutch on the ensuing play, punching an RBI-single into centerfield to chase home the tying run and force extras.

UCSB's Domenic Mazza received a no-decision after pitching very well over eight innings. The left-handed junior allowed just seven hits and three runs, striking out eight Lion hitters. UCSB pitchers totaled 13 strikeouts on Tuesday afternoon.

The game actually ended in odd fashion as the two teams played the top of the 14th in what seemed like too much darkness to continue. LMU stranded runners at the corners in that inning, two of 11 to that point in the game, and the bottom of the 14th began. A leadoff single from Bush in the bottom of the inning rifled past LMU reliever Kevin Glomb and into centerfield, but the umpires convened and decided it was not safe to continue any further, as UCSB left a runner at first with nobody out. The game reverted back to the last complete inning, as LMU's top of the 14th and the leadoff single from Bush were erased and the game was officially called a tie after 13 complete innings.