SAN DIEGO – Point Loma Nazarene and Cal State San Marcos split a non-conference doubleheader at Carroll B. Land Stadium Saturday. The Sea Lions hung on for an 11-10 win in game one with the Cougars taking the nightcap 3-2.

The split puts PLNU at 16-25 overall on the year with CSSM at 22-17.

PLNU won the opener despite giving up 13 hits, issuing 10 walks and throwing three wild pitches; partly because San Marcos pitching was roughed up by the Sea Lion offense for 14 hits and 11 walks.

Point Loma was in big trouble even though the team was up 11-5 heading into the ninth inning. After two hits, three walks, a hit by pitch, and a sac fly the Cougars had scored four runs and had closed the gap to 11-9. CSSM also had the bases loaded and only one out had been recorded by the PLNU defense.

The next Cougar batter, Jeremy Baum, smoked a line-drive to center field that was hauled in at the fence by a leaping Trey Hunt. Normally, that ball would have left the park; this one was kept in by a very stiff wind coming in off the Pacific Ocean on a very cold day. A runner did score, however to make the count 11-10. Finally, with two outs, Kenny Belzer hit a chopper to short that was fielded by Clinton Harwick. The Sea Lion shortstop bounced his throw to first but was dug out on a nice scoop from Tyler Nordgren.

Earlier, the Green and Gold jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after one inning. Brian Burkhead and Trey Hunt each delivered RBI singles in the frame with Lucas DiCiccio doubling home two and Nordgren with a RBI double.

PLNU starter Justin Lawrence shutout the Cougars through three before allowing a run in the fourth. The Sea Lions pushed across a pair in the home half of the fourth to make the score7-1.

CSSM got to and chased Lawrence with three more runs in the fifth. Josh Dexheimer came out of the pen to get the final out of the inning.

The Sea Lions seemed to be running away with the game when they scored two more runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. The Cougars plated one in the eighth off of reliever Jack Archie before their near comeback in the ninth.

Dexheimer (2-1) picked up the win with a scoreless 2.1 innings of relief. Garrett Levsen earned his second save by getting the last three outs of the ninth.

San Marcos used eight pitchers against the Sea Lions in game one. Darren Gay (3-3) started and suffered the loss.

The Sea Lions collected 14 hits with Harwick going 4-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBI. Hunt was 3-for-3 with three RBI with DiCiccio driving in three as well.

Game two starters, Tyler Garkow for PLNU and James Dykstra for CSSM, got back to baseball. The two pitchers both had solid outings and kept the opposition off the scoreboard until the bottom of the fourth.

That's when the Sea Lions broke through for two runs. With the bases loaded Nordgren hit what looked to be an inning-ending double play that was instead thrown away on the play to first which allowed two runs to score.

The Cougars scored single runs in each of the last three innings; however, the last coming on a round-tripper from Anthony Renteria for what would be the game-winner.

Suffering the loss is PLNU's designated tough-luck pitcher this year, Garkow (3-8). He gave up three runs on six hits.

Dykstra (6-1) was nails, yielding just two runs (one earned) on two hits.

The Sea Lions will return to conference play when they host the Biola Eagles on Thursday, starting at 3:00 pm.