LOS ANGELES – Diego Barrera went the distance, Diego Baqueiro launched a homerun over the blue monster and the Lions stormed the field to celebrate the first outright West Coast Conference regular season championship in 25 years after defeating Pacific 3-2 on Thursday night at Page Stadium. 

 

Barrera was up to his old tricks after a pair of unorthodox, low strikeout total starts. The southpaw fanned 12 Tigers, including the final two with the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third.  

 

He mowed down the first 15 batters of the game before a leadoff double in the sixth inning. Barrera worked quickly and efficiently, only needing 114 pitches to complete the gem.  

 

Barrera was backed up early by Baqueiro, who launched his fourth homerun of the season over the blue monster in the second inning. The ball screamed off the bat at a high arcing angle and cleared the wall with ease. LMU would add another run in the second inning when Benny Casillas continued his hot streak with a single through the middle to plate Dylan Dennis from second.  

 

LMU would add the deciding run in the third inning, also off the bat of Baqueiro. Sam Biller reached on a single through the middle and stole second to move into scoring position. Baqueiro stood in and lined a 1-2 pitch over the third baseman's head and into the corner for an RBI double.  

 

The Tigers would get two runs back and threaten again in the ninth. After getting the first batter of the inning, Barrera gave up a single and a double to put runners on second and third. He stranded both runners after striking out his eleventh and twelfth batters of the game and sent the Lion bench into a frenzy on the field.  

 

The Lions last won the regular season title in 2017, but with the caveat of that being a shared championship. 1998 was the last year that an LMU team brought home the title solo. 25 years later, they have done it again.  

 

In the short post-game meeting before the trophy presentation, head coach Nathan Choate asked his players to raise their hands if they had won a championship. Every hand shot up with pace. 

 

The Lions are back in action on Friday, May 19 at 6:05 p.m. (PT) to face Pacific in game two of the three game set. Zach Kirby will be on the hill for the Lions.