Box Score April 23, 2016 Box Score
Sophomore right-hander Cory Abbott dealt 7.0 strong innings, allowing just a solo homer to Danny Mayer in the fifth, en route to earning the victory and guiding LMU (19-20, 9-8 WCC) to a 9-1 victory over Pacific (17-19, 8-9 WCC) on Saturday from Klein Family Field in Stockton, Calif.
Abbott improved to 5-3 on the year, scattering seven hits and four walks with five strikeouts. The native of San Diego, Calif. tossed 108 pitches to record the victory. LMU's freshmen relievers, Codie Paiva and Mark Finkelnburg, combined for two shutout frames, allowing just one hit and one walk. Paiva, who has now tossed 11.1 scoreless innings to start his LMU career, struck out two in the eighth.
LMU's top of the order, namely Phil Caulfield and Spencer Erdman, combined to go 7-for-10 with three runs scored, a double and two RBI. Caulfield was 4-for-5 with the double, three runs scored and two RBI, setting a new career-high for hits. Sean Watkins and Niko Decolati also had multiple hits, with Watkins going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI. Decolati, hitting out of the ninth spot in the order, finished 2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored and a RBI.
LMU scored its nine runs on 15 hits, but six of the nine were unearned, as the Tigers committed six errors. LMU plated four unearned runs in the second, with Decolati and Caulfield posting RBI-doubles in the frame.
The Lions tacked on three more in the fourth to extend the lead to 7-0, with Erdmann's two-RBI single highlighting the scoring.
After Mayer's solo-shot, his 11th homer of the year, to break up the shutout bid, LMU added single runs in the eighth and ninth. Whalen singled early in the eighth before ultimately coming around to score on an RBI-single from Watkins. Caulfield capped his stellar day atop the order in the ninth, shooting his fourth single through the left side before moving to third on a pair of wild pitches and scoring on an RBI-groundout from Cassidy Brown. The RBI was Brown's 30th of the season.
LMU and Pacific will play the rubber game of the three-game series tomorrow at 1 p.m.
