SAN DIEGO – Great pitching, excellent defense and just enough offense was the recipe for success Wednesday as Point Loma Nazarene defeated Vanguard 1-0 in a Golden State Athletic Conference tilt at Carroll B. Land Stadium.

The victory was the third straight for the Sea Lions which improved to 14-13 overall 9-11 GSAC. VUSC fell to 13-15, 9-9 conference.

PLNU starter Garrett Levsen threw seven innings of one-hit baseball against VUSC to improve to 3-5 on the year. The freshman righty fanned six Lion batters during his time on the hill. Chris Gonzales followed with two no-hit frames in relief, earning his first save.

Allen Boyer scored the game's lone run in the bottom of the first. The PLNU centerfielder started things off with a double. Vanguard left fielder Jacob Domingos nearly made a shoe-string catch on Boyer's hit, but was unable to come up with the grab. Tyler Kuehl laid down a sac bunt to move Boyer to third and Scott Stidham then came through with a RBI grounder.

Levsen, though he only allowed one hit, did walk three and hit another batter. The only hit the freshman allowed was an inning-opening double to Tyson Leighton in the second. Leighton advanced to third on a sac bunt and was a base away from scoring. Levsen hit the next batter who stole second to compound the Lion threat. But the PLNU starter fanned the next two batters, preventing VUSC from turning the threat into a run.

Vanguard had just one more runnerr in scoring position all day. In the seventh Jason Dovel coaxed a leadoff walk off of Levsen and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Jeremiah Mejia also reached on a walk to put runners on first and second with one out.

Pinch-hitter Eric Sanchez was up next and dumped a shot into center that fell in for what looked like a game-tying hit - or at least one that would load the bases. But Dovel, the runner at second, got a bad read on the ball and was fooled by Boyer who made it seem as though he was going to make a catch. When the ball dropped in front of PLNU center fielder, Boyer quickly picked it up and gunned out Dovel at third. Levsen induced a ground out for final out of the frame.

That would be Levsen's 99^th and final pitch of the game as he gave way to Gonzales to start the eighth. Gonzales got the first two Lion batters to ground to second. PLNU third baseman Shain Stoner made a terrific diving grab of a shot down the line, bounced up and threw out the Vanguard runner

Gonzales sent the Lions down 1-2-3 in the ninth to halt a contest that took just over two hours to complete.

Gabriel Garcia (5-3) was the hard-luck loser. The Vanguard lefty leads the GSAC in ERA and was a catch away from twirling a shutout himself.

The game was the first of four between the two teams. PLNU will host Vanguard at 3:00 pm on Thursday before the two squads head up to Costa Mesa for a twinbill on Saturday.