The Loyola Marymount Lions (21-12, 10-3 WCC) behind the bats of the entire lineup and the arm of Codie Paiva pulled out in front early and kept it going late against San Diego and ultimately beat the Toreros 10-4.
 
Paiva, getting the starting nod from head coach Jason Gill was sharp in his first home start since March 22^ndagainst Pacific. On the bump for LMU he produced 7.0 innings of seven hit baseball conceding one run and one walk while striking out six on 94 pitches.
 
The Lions were aggressive from the onset scoring two of their seven runs in the first. Junior Nick Sogard drew an inning opening walk and advanced to third on Cooper Uhl's single to left field. With two men on senior Brandon Shearer hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring Sogard. Next up to the plate was the red-hot Trevin Esquerra and he drew a walk putting two men on once again. San Diego's Jake Miller threw a wild pitch advancing both Lions runners allowing LMU to score once more on the Tommy Delgado groundout to second base for the second run of the game.
 
LMU put three more runs on the board in the second and third innings, first came off the double by Dylan Hirsch scoring Alex Lambeau then off Esquerra's team-leading 12^thhome run of the season.
 
The Lions blew the game open in the bottom half of the seventh bringing in five runs while chasing two USD pitchers in the inning. Getting the scoring started for LMU was freshman Ethan Patrick who singled to left center bringing in both Shearer and Esquerra. With the Lions loading the bases Hirsch singled up the middle plating Ben Grunberg and Patrick. Getting the final run of the inning and night for the Lions was Uhl who's single to left field scored Hirsch giving LMU a final tally of 10 runs.   
 
The Lions and Toreros resume their series tomorrow night for the second contest of their three-game set with first pitch slated for 6:00 p.m.