SAN FRANCISCO - The Sea Lions received a pair of strong starts, opportunistic offense and fantastic defense to sweep a doubleheader from the Academy of Art on the road, winning 9-3 in game 1 and 10-1 in game 2, on Friday, Mar. 20.
 
The Sea Lions (18-7, 6-4 PacWest) have now won five straight games while outscoring their opponents 39-15.  The win also puts PLNU into third place by percentage points in the PacWest standings over Azusa Pacific and pulls the Sea Lions to within two games of first-place Dixie State (12-8, 7-1 PacWest).
  
Game 1
Senior catcher Anthony Torres went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, an RBI, a stolen base and three runs scored to help the Sea Lions win the opener 9-3.
 
Eric Pierce went the first six innings giving up three runs and six hits to improve to 4-2 on the season. He struck out three and walked just one. Mickey Dunleavy came out of the bullpen to work a scoreless seventh and eighth innings, before Garrett Gooding finished the Urban Knights in the ninth.
 
In addition to Torres, Devin Carter also had had three hits including his eighth double of the season. Tyler Baker racked his third triple and had two RBI. AJ Derr drove in a pair of runs  and reached base in four of five plate appearances with two hits and two walks  
 
Game 2
Kevin Lillicrop struck out eight batters and allowed just five hits and one run in a complete game victory at Academy of Art, 10-1. Lillicrop, a sophomore righty from Cypress, Calif. (Cypress HS) took a shutout into the bottom of the ninth before surrendering his only run of the day.
 
Point Loma gave Lillicrop the early lead with two runs in the first on a two-run, RBI-single by Ryan Garcia. The Sea Lions would break the game wide open in the fifth when they exploded for seven runs on five hits and a pair of Urban Knight errors.
 
Ryan Garcia was 3-4 with a run scored and three RBI. Devin Carter also knocked in a pair of runs.
 
"It was a good day and we did lots of things well." PLNU head coach Joe Schaefer said. "We pitched well and had consistent at-bats, both which have held us back this season. I hope we can keep this going tomorrow.
 
"I was most proud of our defense," Schaefer added. "We need to have that on the road and ours was great today."
 
Next games
The series will continue on Saturday, Mar. 21 at 11:00 a.m.