[Box score]

SAN DIEGO - Point Loma's 2013 baseball season opener was spoiled when Cal State Monterey Bay's David Garcia connected on a grand slam in the top of the ninth inning to give the Otters a 7-3 win over the Sea Lions on Friday, Feb. 1.

PLNU had to come back from a 3-1 deficit early in the game to just tie the game. The Sea Lions closed the gap to one run on a two-out single by Clinton Harwick in the fifth. Bryan Burkhead would then tie the game at 3-3 on a solo home run to start the bottom of the sixth.

The Otters got their leadoff hitter on to start the ninth inning. After a stolen base and a groundout to second base, the Sea Lions chose to intentionally walk the cleanup hitter to put runners at first and second. However, the plan backfired when the Sea Lions' reliever hit the next batter with a pitch loading the bases for Garcia. He took and inside pitch and lifted it down the left field line for the grand slam.

"You have to get some jitters out and I think you saw that today," said PLNU head coach Joe Schaefer. "We expected that we weren't going to show perfection on the field today, there were going to be some mistakes made especially when you have some new guys on the field."

Clinton Harwick went 1-for-4 with two RBI to lead the Sea Lions. Burkhead picked up the other RBI on his solo shot in the sixth. Mike Marcoux went 3-for-4 with a run scored. He singled in each of his first three at-bats a Sea Lion.

"The positive thing for me was that we competed for nine innings," explained Schaefer. "We fought back from an early deficit and we did many things offensively that I wanted to see from our team. We just made some defensive mistakes and a few bad pitches, and they made us pay for it."

Tyler Garkow started the game for Point Loma, and after some early inning control problems found a rhythm and pitched the Sea Lions through five innings. He gave up six hits and three earned runs in five innings while striking out six. Jeff Owen (1-0) earned the win for CSUMB out of the bullpen. He pitched the final four innings allowing just three hits and the Burkhead home run.

"I think we will be better tomorrow," Schaefer continued. "You get opening day out of the way and you get a little more comfortable the next day. I expect us to settle in, pitch better and play some better defense."

These teams will be back on the field for a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 11:00 a.m. to close out the three-game series.