LOS ANGELES – The Lions wrapped up year one of the Donegal Fergus era with a 10-6 victory over the visiting San Francisco Dons on Saturday afternoon at Page Stadium.
Before the game, the Lions honored 19 seniors in a short ceremony to celebrate their contributions to the university and to the baseball program.
The Lions got the bats going early with a run in the first.
Christian Dicochea led off the game with a triple down the right field line before
Diego Baqueiro drilled an RBI single through the right side of the infield.
The Dons got two in the third inning to take the lead before the Lions answered back for three in the third. Dicochea once again led off the inning with a single. He advanced to third when
Brendan Bobo singled to center field. Dicochea would score on Baqueiro's first double of the afternoon, with Baqueiro also recording his second RBI of the game. Both Baqueiro and Bobo would score when
Benny Casillas bounced a single over the third baseman.
The Dons would score one in the fourth and one in the fifth to tie the game at four before LMU broke out for a five-run fifth.
Baqueiro laced his second double before scoring on a
Robbie Ayers single through the right side of the infield.
Grant Weiss was hit by a pitch to load the bases to set the stage for
Sam Biller. Biller dropped a single into right field that was misplayed by the right fielder. Casillas and Ayers scored easily and Weiss motored all the way around from first to score as well. Biller advanced to second on the misplay before stealing third and scoring easily on
Daalen Adderley's single.
The Dons got two in the sixth before the scoring wrapped up with one run in the bottom of the sixth. Once again it was the combination of Dicochea and Baqueiro providing the offense. Dicochea led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored when Baqueiro blasted his third double of the game off the blue monster.
Blake Reilly finished off the game with 3.1 scoreless innings of relief. The graduate student allowed just a pair of hits and struck out three to record his first collegiate save.
The Lions finished the 2024 season tied with Pepperdine for sixth place in the West Coast Conference, but by virtue of the Waves' series victory over the Lions, the Waves are headed to participate in the WCC tournament as the sixth seed.
