The Loyola Marymount University Lions baseball team (2-1, 0-0 WCC) held on to a one-run lead heading into the top of the ninth but surrendered a pair of runs to Washington and fell 4-3 for their first loss of the season.
 
LMU was up 3-2 in the ninth and head coach Nathan Choate had a steady CJ Fernandezees on the bump. Fernandezees, working in his fourth straight inning, gave up a pair of singles to the Huskies putting runners on the corners with no outs. Washington was able to tie up the game on a grounder to Matthew Piotrowski who threw the ball away at second base allowing all the runners to be safe and the tying score to come home.
 
With the game knotted at 3-3, Washington laid down a squeeze and Fernandezees' toss to Cooper Uhl wasn't in time to lay down the tag and the Lions found themselves down a run.
 
Heading into the ninth Cole Roberts got the inning started with a bloop single over the first basemen's head setting the table for a possible tie. Dylan Hirsch laid down the sacrifice bunt, giving the Lions an opportunity to bring Roberts home. Kenny Oyama moved Roberts over to third with his out at first base. With the tying run 90-feet away the Huskies intentionally walked Trevin Esquerra, his third walk of the game, bringing up Matt Voelker. Voelker almost tied the game for the Lions, but his blooper was snagged by the shortstop who made a diving catch to end the game and the series.
 
Redshirt junior Sean Paquet got the Sunday afternoon start and was solid in his 2020 debut going 5 full frames scattering three hits and giving up only two runs against 20 Washington batters. Fernandezees picked up the loss, his first of the year, but had a strong outing for Choate.
 
The Lions next take the diamond on Tuesday, Feb. 18 in a very familiar place. LMU travels to Jackie Robinson Stadium to take on the No. 8 UCLA Bruins with first pitch slated for 6:00 p.m. The Lions and Bruins faced each other five times last season with LMU pushing UCLA to the fifth and deciding game of the Los Angeles Regional.