Pasadena, Calif. – It took extra innings, but the Golden Eagles prevailed, over Providence Christian College, in Thursday's first game of a 3-game series. La Sierra scored two runs in the 12thinning to secure an 8-7 win over the Seabeggars, to pick up their second Cal Pac win of the season. With the victory, the Golden Eagles improved to 2-8 in conference play, and 6-13 overall.
After taking a 2-0 lead, with two runs in the 2ndinning, the Golden Eagles found themselves trailing 5-2 after the Seabeggars answered with five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Providence held the lead until La Sierra tied the game with three runs in the 5th. The Golden Eagles regained the lead with a run in the top half of the 7th, only to be answered again by the Seabeggars who scored a run of their own in the bottom of the 7thinning. But La Sierra would not be denied as they pushed two runs across in the 12thinning and held off Providence, who pulled to within one run, for the win.
Mark Bontempo pitched the final four innings to pick up the win, giving up just one run on three hits. He relieved Justin Wren who started the game and surrendered six runs, only four earned, on a total of seven hits, with nine strikeouts against only two walks.
Catcher Kash Mattson led the way offensively, for the Golden Eagles, by tallying two hits and three runs-batted-in, including a double and a homerun. Three other players joined Mattson with two hits, including Andrew Lundstrom, Art Felix, and Justin Shields. Felix added an RBI, while Josh Jubile finished 1-for-4 with two RBI's in the game.
The two teams combined for a total of 20 hits for the game, with each team finishing with 10 hits apiece.
The Golden Eagles and Seabeggars will be back at it tomorrow afternoon, for a doubleheader, starting at 11am. Friday's games will be played at John Muir High School. The baseball team will return home on Tuesday and Wednesday (March 26 &27) of next week, versus Simpson University, to make up games that were originally scheduled to be played in Redding, back on March 3 and 4, but were cancelled due to rain. Simpson will play the games as the home team. Tuesday's doubleheader will start at 11am.
