No. 3 seed Loyola Marymount Lions baseball season came to an end with a 6-3 loss to the No. 1 overall seed UCLA Bruins in the Los Angeles Regional Monday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium. 
 
The Lions (34-25) were unable to keep pace with UCLA (51-9) as they unable to take advantage of opportunities leaving eight men on base. Offensively, LMU had six hits to UCLA's eight but two early inning bases loaded situations couldn't yield any runs for the Lions as their offense stalled the rest of the way leading the defeat.
 
"We hung in there with them. I know that wasn't our goal," said head coach Jason Gill. "We felt the whole game we were going to win all the way up until the ninth inning. I'm extremely proud of my team. How we showed up today. How we fought. How we played. I wouldn't trade one of them for one of them for anybody else in the country."
 
The Lions jumped out on junior Felix Rubi from the onset, plating two runs in the visiting half of the first. LMU benefitted from two errors by first baseman Michael Toglia and had an opportunity to push more runs across but a bases loaded fly out to left put an end to the rally. 
 
The Bruins got two right back in the bottom half of the first on a sac fly to right bringing in Ryan Kreidler but Steven Chavez's pickoff throw to third got past Brandon Shearer allowing Jake Pries to score on the play tying the game at two.
 
The Lions kept pressure on the Bruins loading the bases again in the top of the second but the rally stalled on a Trevin Esquerra rocket shot that went straight to second base leading to the double play keeping the score knotted at two.
 
With the game all square at two a piece LMU gave up a run in the bottom of the third on a sac fly pushing the Bruins ahead by one run.
 
Sophomore right-hander CJ Fernandezees (4-2) suffered the loss. He made his fourth start in 26 appearances on the season. He surrendered three runs and five hits through 3.0 innings, totaling four strikeouts and two walks. 
 
The story of the game was the Lions inability to push runs across when they had runners in scoring position. 
 
LMU had another opportunity to score in the top of third when Tommy Delgado doubled to right center putting him in scoring position but he was left on third after a pop up by Dylan Hirsch ended the frame.
 
LMU fell victim to the long ball in the home half of the fourth when Gill called on Codie Paiva to relief Fernandezees. Paiva retired the first two batters he faced but gave up a double and then hit a batter bringing up Chase Strumpf who homered over the left field wall pushing UCLA's lead to four.
 
The Lions benefitted from another Bruin error in the fifth allowing Brandon Shearer to score from second when Esquerra's hit went through the legs of Strumpf, making the score 6-3. 
 
LMU got out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth to stay within striking distance but weren't able to push across any runs after the fifth totaling just one hit from the seventh inning on.
 
The Lions magical season ended at the Regionals on Monday night but coach Gill's team has a bright future ahead. Fresh off his first West Coast Conference tournament victory and pushing the number one team in the country to the brink of elimination the Lions will be looking forward to returning to Page Stadium next season. 
 
"Well, first off, I'd like to congratulate Loyola. Loyola made a hell of a run," said UCLA head coach John Savage. "Thought Gilly (LMU manager Jason Gill) did a great job with that team. The whole coaching staff. To come back and win that tournament in the West Coast Conference—that was a tough league this season. And they certainly played very well here in the Regional."
 
The Lions come off their most successful season since the 2000 made the NCAA Regionals and first conference tournament championship in Gill's tenure with the team.
 
NOTABLE:
 
The Los Angeles Regional All-Tournament team was announced at the conclusion of the weekend and the Lions Nick Sogard and Codie Paiva were selections to the team.