The Loyola Marymount Lions (18-10, 7-2 WCC) grinded out a tough victory over Cal State University Bakersfield 8-3 behind a strong bullpen and a pair of late inning rally's on Tuesday night.
 
The Lions used a total of six arms on Tuesday with head coach Jason Gill turning to sophomore Holden Christian, making his first start of the season, and he provided LMU with 1.1 innings striking out one and walking three before giving way to Josh Robins. Robins gave the Lions 1.2 innings of three hit baseball surrendering two runs and one hit. 
 
The Lions and Roadrunners alternated leads in the first four innings before LMU was able to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth when Bakersfield's Noah Cordova threw a wild pitch that skipped past catcher Jake Ortega allowing Kenny Oyama to score from third tying the game at two apiece. 
 
Putting in a majority of the work on the mound for the Lions on Tuesday was redshirt junior Kyle Mora. He produced 3.2 innings of three hit baseball striking out three and walking three against 17 Roadrunner batters. Mora exited the game with the bases loaded in the top half of the seventh giving way to Giuseppe Benedetti and he got Tyler Jorgensen to fly out to right field ending the threat. 
 
LMU was able to grab and hold the lead in the bottom half of the seventh. Getting the rally started with a single and a quick stolen base was junior Dylan Hirsch. Hirsch was able to score two batters later when Cooper Uhl singled to center field for the RBI. Senior Brandon Shearer drew a walk setting the table for Trevin Esquerra and he hit a sac fly to right field plating Nick Sogard. Continuing the scoring was Ryan Ruley who's double to center field scored Uhl, giving the Lions three runs in the inning. 
 
The Lions were able to push three more runs along in the bottom of the eighth, getting the first two on sac flies by Uhl and Shearer. The third and final run of the inning came off the bat of Esquerra who's team leading 10^thhome run sailed over the right field wall pushing the Lions run total to eight. 
 
Matt Voelker came on in the ninth and closed the door on Bakersfield when Cole Valletta flied out to center field giving LMU the 8-3 victory.
                                                                                                                                           
The Lions head back out on the road this weekend when they travel to San Francisco for a three-game series against the Dons with the first contest scheduled for Friday at 3:00 p.m., followed by 1:00 p.m. starts on Saturday and Sunday.