The Loyola Marymount Lions (12-7, 3-0 WCC) gave head coach Jason Gill his 300^thcareer victory on Tuesday night with a strong outing by the bullpen and timely hitting for the mid-week win against San Diego State 5-1.
 
Gill called on freshman Alex Burge to start and he responded with 2.0 innings of shutout baseball, surrendering only two hits against eight Aztec batters picking up his third win of the season. 
 
The Lions started the scoring in their half of the first on the smart baserunning of junior Nick Sogard. He drew a walk to get on then promptly stole his team-leading ninth base when he slid under the tag at second. Junior Cooper Uhl sacrificed him over with a bunt to third. San Diego State's Adrian Mardueno's wild pitch past catcher Joe Fitzhugh brought in the hustling Sogard for the game's first run. 
 
LMU and San Diego State traded runs in the fifth inning. The Aztecs Jaden Fein homered to left center and the Lions Kenny Oyama hit a sac-fly to center field scoring Ryan Ruley who hit his first triple of the year.
 
The Lions got runs in the bottom of the sixth, seventh and eighth to push their total to five for the game. Trevin Esquerra sent his team-leading fifth home run over the wall in left center in the sixth, Ben Grunberg singled for an RBI in the seventh and Esquerra picked up another RBI when he singled to left field.
 
Gill's bullpen did most of the heavy lifting for the victory. Redshirt junior Kyle Mora pitched 2.0 solid innings, striking out and walking one while not giving up a run. Nate Madole's 1.0 innings of work yielding one run and one hit. Following Madole was Sean Paquet who gave Gill 1.1 innings not allowing a run or hit. CJ Fernandeezes came into the game in the top of the seventh and pitched himself out of a bases loaded jam. He ended up with 1.2 innings pitched, conceding one hit. Matt Voelker came in and closed the door on the Aztecs getting the final three outs.
 
With the win LMU extends its season-long six game win streak as they head back into West Coast Conference play this weekend against the Pacific Tigers. The Lions and Tigers three-game series starts Friday, March 22^ndwith first pitch slated for 6:00 pm.