The Loyola Marymount Lions (16-9, 6-1 WCC) used an outstanding pitching performance from Codie Paiva, great situational hitting and manufactured enough offense to take the first contest of the three-game weekend series against Portland 2-1.
 
Paiva got the call from head coach Jason Gill and he shook off a first pitch home run to Portland's Chad Stevens and responded with another strong outing. He threw 6.2 innings of three hit baseball surrendering one run, three hits, two walks while striking out seven on 102 total pitches.
 
The Lions had a scoring opportunity slip through their fingers in the top half of the second when they loaded the bases but got a bad break as Kenny Oyama's single hit freshman Ben Grunberg halting the play and scoring chance for the Lions. With the bases still loaded Nick Sogard came up with a chance to get LMU on the board but his shot to the shortstop ended the inning when he got Oyama out at second. 
 
LMU was able to break through in the top half of the seventh when Sogard doubled to left center scoring Oyama who had reached earlier on an error by Tracye Tammaro. With Sogard now at third LMU was able to manufacture the go ahead run off the bat of senior Brandon Shearer's groundout to second when the ball took a high bounce making the Pilots only play to first allowing Sogard to slide in safely at home.
 
Paiva certainly was the story for the Lions, shaking off that first inning home run to only allowing Portland to reach second base for the remainder of the game while he was on the mound. He was able to hold the heart of Portland's lineup to one hit while getting those Pilot hitters to strike out four times. He was relieved by sophomore CJ Fernandezees in the bottom of the seventh after issuing a walk to Tammaro. Fernandeezes hit Cody Hawken with a pitch and allowed both Tammaro and Hawken to advance on a wild pitch before getting Dutton Elske to ground out to Sogard ending the inning and threat for the Pilots.
 
The Lions went quietly in their half of the eighth and were able to withstand a Portland rally in the bottom of the frame. Fernandeezes got the first two Portland batters out but took a comebacker off the bat of Gabe Skoro and was able to shake it off and retire the Pilots when Daniel Lopez flied out to left field.
 
The Lions weren't able to produce anything in the top of the ninth setting the stage for Matt Voelker to shut the door on the Pilots and the sophomore delivered retiring Portland in order and preserving the win for LMU.
 
The Lions and Pilots return to Joe Etzel Field for the second contest of the weekend series as Cameron Richman does battle against LMU's Josh Agnew with first pitch slated for 6:00 p.m.