OAKLAND - The Point Loma baseball team earned their first four-game PacWest road sweep since 2012-13 by taking both games of a doubleheader from Academy of Art on Saturday, Mar. 21. PLNU opened the day with a 4-3 victory and then finished off the sweep with a 5-2 win in the series finale.
 
The victories extend the Sea Lions' (20-7, 8-4 PacWest) winning streak to seven games and moved them within one game of Hawaii Pacific for second place in the PacWest standings. The losses drop ART U to 5-20 on the season and to 3-9 in the PacWest.
 
Game 1
Point Loma scored four runs in the top of the fourth and then held on behind Kellen Sheppard and Coleman Huntley III for the 4-3 victory.
 
Anthony Torres doubled in Ryan Garcia and Devin Carter, whom led off the inning with singles, and then he and Preston Sands came in to score after an ART U error and a Trey Hunt single to put PLNU in front 4-0.
 
Sheppard (3-0) pitched into the ninth inning to pick up his third victory of the season. He allowed 10 hits and just three runs in 8.1 innings of work. He did not give up a run until the eighth, ad was still going strong in the ninth before giving up a two-run homer, prompting a call to the bullpen for Huntley.
 
Huntley made it interesting by loading the bases with one out, but was able to get a strike out and a ground out to end the threat and pick up his PacWest-leading seventh save of the season.
 
Game 2
Ryan Garcia went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, two RBI and a run scored, and Trevor Abshire battled through five innings to lift PLNU to a 5-2 win in game 4 to complete the series sweep.
 
Garcia helped stake Abshire to a 2-0 lead in the first inning as he doubled in AJ Derr and then came around to score on a single by Devin Carter. Garcia would double in Derr in the fifth to put PLNU up 3-1 and the Sea Lions added two more insurance runs in the sixth on an RBI-single by Trey Hunt and a sacrifice fly by Tyler Baker.
 
Abshire (3-1) did not have his best stuff but fought to get through five innings to earn his third win of the season. He pitched five innings allowing six hits and two runs while striking out four without allowing a walk. Garrett Gooding pitched a scoreless sixth and Coleman Huntley had a perfect ninth inning to complete the victory. It was Huntley's eighth save of the season. During the series the PLNU bullpen pitched 5.2 innings allowing no runs and just three hits while earning two saves.
 
Derr scored a pair of runs of PLNU as he went 2-for-4 with a double. Joseph Marchini had two of the Urban Knights' six hits in the game. Josh Lopez (0-4) took the loss for ART U after allowing three runs, six hits and three walks in five innings.

The only other road sweep the Sea Lions have ever earned in PacWest play came at Holy Names during the 2012-13 season. 
 
Next games
After three straight series on the road, PLNU will return home to host Hawaii Hilo and Hawaii Pacific. The Vulcans will come to town for a four-game series starting on Friday, Mar. 27.