The NAIA No. 15-ranked Sea Lions recorded a doubleheader sweep of Westmont Thursday afternoon at Russ Carr Field. Steven Winnick pitched PLNU to a 4-0 triumph in the opener while Jeff Fox blasted two homers in the 12-2 nightcap win to back a complete-game gem by Brandon Dixon.  
 
Point Loma Nazarene improved to 32-11-1 with the sweep and is 21-9 in the Golden State Athletic Conference. California Baptist and Vanguard are playing the second tilt of a four-game series on Thursday. If CBU wins today, the Sea Lions will find themselves second in the conference standings. If VUSC comes out on top, PLNU stays four games back of CBU, the GSAC leaders, with six contests in the regular season to play.
 
Game one was scoreless until PLNU pushed across a run in the fourth when Jeff Fox singled home Tyler Kuehl. The Sea Lions added runs in the next two frames. Wes Kartch tripled and scored on a Warrior miscue in the fifth and Rashad Taylor hit a two-run homerun in the sixth.
 
Winnick blanked the WC lineup through eight innings on the hill, scattering seven hits and fanning two on 99 pitches. Winnick improved to 8-2 this season. Kenny Houser and Maurice Wilhelm each toed the rubber in relief.
 
Geoff Rocha took the loss for the Warriors, allowing four runs (two earned) in seven innings. Chris Plance threw a pair of hitless frames in relief.
 
The PLNU offense was led by 2-for-4 efforts from Kuehl and Allen Boyer.
 
Fox hit a three-run homerun in both the third and fourth innings as the Sea Lions took a quick 10-1 lead. PLNU tacked on a pair of runs in the seventh when Jack Diamond doubled home Winnick and Alec Martinez.
 
Dixon (8-0) held Westmont to just two runs over nine frames. The PLNU lefty surrendered nine hits and threw 125 pitches, but besides a solo shot by Timothy Leary in the first and a RBI hit by Terrell Wong in the eighth, Dixon kept the Warriors from any extended rallies.
 
The Sea Lions pounded three WC hurlers for 16 hits. Kuehl had three more base knocks, including a solo homerun, while Fox, Diamond, Taylor and Martinez had two hits apiece.
 
Westmont fell to 11-30 overall with the two losses, 7-23 GSAC.
 
The two teams will finish off their four-game season series with a twinbill at scenic Carroll B. Land Stadium this Saturday starting at noon.