ABILENE, Texas — Jonah Johnson delivered the finest outing of his collegiate career and freshman Win Gurney launched his first career home run Friday night as LMU shut out Abilene Christian 3-0 at Bullock Brothers Ballpark, giving the Lions their first road win of the season and pushing them to 7-13 overall.
Johnson was virtually untouchable. The senior right-hander worked seven scoreless innings, striking out 11 batters on 107 pitches while allowing only two hits, a third-inning single by Gavin Brzozowski and a two-out seventh-inning double by JT Thompson that Johnson stranded by striking out Sam Hardcastle to end the frame. He issued just one walk. It was a career high in strikeouts for Johnson, who entered the night as one of LMU's most reliable arms with a 4.45 ERA on the season.
Johnson was at his most dominant against Abilene Christian's left-handed hitters, holding them hitless on the night. The one real threat he navigated came in the third, when Brzozowski's single and a walk to Zandt Payne put two runners on with two outs, but Johnson induced a groundout from Grant Watkins to escape unscathed.
Jake Geis came on in relief to close out the final two innings, earning his first save of the season. He worked around a ground-rule double and a walk in a tense ninth by striking out two and inducing a flyout to strand three Wildcats.
Offensively, the Lions scratched across three runs against a solid left-hander in Brett Lanman, who struck out 11 of his own over seven frames. LMU broke through in the sixth when Jaxson Wall doubled, stole third, and scored on a groundout by DJ Ghiorso to make it 1-0.
Then came the moment of the night. With two outs in the seventh and the Lions clinging to that one-run edge, Gurney, a freshman making his fifth career start, launched a solo home run to deep center field on the first pitch he saw to push the lead to 2-0. It was the first home run of Gurney's collegiate career, and the timing could hardly have been better. Gurney has been quietly building momentum, putting together a three-hit performance at Arizona State just four days earlier, and now carries a .278 average on the season.
LMU added an insurance run in the ninth when Ghiorso led off with a double, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by
Alex Gamboa, and scored on a balk. The Lions finished with seven hits.
The shutout was LMU's first of the season. The Lions entered Friday without a road win all season, and the victory at Bullock Brothers Ballpark snapped that 0-7 road skid in emphatic fashion. LMU has now won two straight, following a home win over California Baptist on Tuesday.
Wall finished 1-for-4 with a double, a stolen base, and a run scored, continuing one of the more impressive offensive seasons on the roster, he enters the weekend hitting .435, tops on the team by a wide margin. Ghiorso went 1-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored out of the three-hole.
LMU is scheduled to continue its road trip at Abilene Christian on Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. (PT).
