LOS ANGELES – Beau Ankeney blasted a pair of homeruns, Zack Mack and Cole Stucky combined for a scoreless four innings out of the bullpen and LMU baseball defeated San Diego 9-4 in both teams' West Coast Conference openers at Page Stadium on Friday night.  

 

Kenji Pallares was on the mound for the Lions and cruised through four innings of one run ball before running into some trouble in the fifth. He finished the inning, but the Lions trailed 4-3 at the end of his stint.  

 

The Lions put up their three runs all in the first inning and all came via the longball.  

 

Cam Hassert was hit by the first pitch of the game to set the table for Ankeney's first blast. The junior launched a ball into the trees in left-center field, directly over the Lions spirit mark. That homer was Ankeney's seventh of the season. Devan Ornelas immediately followed with his third homer of the season, blasting the first pitch he saw over the right field wall and staking the Lions to a 3-1 lead after one.  

 

With the Lions trailing 4-3 entering the bottom of the fifth, the Lions offense pushed across a run to tie the game. 

 

Zion Williams opened the inning with a line drive double into the right-center field gap and raced into second without a throw. DJ Ghiorso followed up shortly thereafter with an RBI single into center field to plate Williams easily.  

 

Hassert once again set the table in the sixth with a one-out walk and advanced to second on Ankeney's single up the middle. After a pitching change, Kolton Freeman stepped up and hit a soft single through the right side that glanced off the second baseman's glove. The ball kicked away and allowed Hassert to score from second and get Ankeney over to third.  

 

The Lions did most of their damage in the eighth and it was Ankeney once again showing the lightning pop he has. On an 0-1 pitch, Ankeney unloaded on a ball that likely still has not landed. The ball was still rising as it easily cleared the blue monster in left field and the net protecting the neighborhood according to some sources. Ornelas followed by ripping a double down the right field line and Williams would score him easily when he drilled a single right up the middle. Nate Savoie got in on the fun when he popped a ball up to shallow right field. The Torero first and second baseman as well as the right fielder all converged but managed to overrun the ball as it dropped in and he ended up on third base with a triple. He would score on an error by the shortstop to give the Lions another insurance run.  

 

Mack and Stucky were spectacular out of the pen. Mack went three innings out of the pen and allowed just a pair of baserunners. He punched out four batters including freezing a Torero on a breaking ball with a runner on third in the seventh inning.  

 

Stucky came in to pitch the ninth and quickly struck out the side. 

 

LMU and the Toreros will continue their WCC clash on Saturday, March 22 at 3:00 p.m. (PT).