SAN DIEGO - UC Colorado Springs took both games from the Point Loma baseball team on Saturday to win the series. The Sea Lions dropped the first game in extra innings, 5-2, and the rubber game of the series, 5-3.
 
Game 1: Point Loma came back to tie the game in the eighth inning on bases loaded, RBI-groundout by Travis Takata, which plated Kyle Gracey from third, but they were unable to push any more across the plate.
 
UCCS took the lead in the 11th on an RBI-single by Evan Richards and added two more insurance runs on a single by Cody Norton to win the game 5-3.
 
PLNU had its own chance to win the game when it loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth. At that point, the Mountain Lions went to Dagin Renck in the bullpen, and he got an infield pop up and a strikeout to end the threat.
 
The loss spoiled a great start for Jerry Quemada, who was forced to take a no-decision. Quemada went 6.0 innings, allowing five hits and one run while walking three and striking out nine. Renck (2-0) earned the win, and Cam Aufderheide got the save for UCCS.
 
Game 2: The Sea Lions plated two runs in the second inning before seeing UC Colorado Springs score five unanswered runs to lose the rubber match, 5-3.
 
Right after putting their runs on the board in the second inning on a safety squeeze by Michael Palos and a sacrifice fly from Miguel Cazares, the Mountain Lions answered in the top of the third with two runs to tie the game, aided by a pair of Sea Lion-errors.
 
UCCS used their legs and bats to take the lead with a three-run sixth. The Mountain Lions kept putting runners in motion in the inning, and their batters kept finding open holes on the hit-and-run plays. PLNU would answer with one run in the bottom of the inning, but could not find two more runs in the next two innings before the game was called after the eighth, due to darkness.
 
Colby Kaneshiro and Palos both recorded multi-hit games for the Sea Lions.

Team Records
Point Loma (6-4, 0-0 PacWest), UC Colorado Springs (7-3, 0-0 RMAC)
 
Words from coach James
On game 1: "We had several opportunities to win game 1, and if we want to go where we say we want to go, we have to be able to cash in on of those opportunities. Good teams won't give you many of those chances, so when they do come around, we have to jump on them and execute. We didn't do that in game 1."
 
On game 2 (the rubber match of the series): "Every game is critical, and after the fact, it is nice to say you won the series. However, we treat that one as a single game. It doesn't matter what we did the other games of the series. If we play catch the way we did in that game, we won't win any of them. It all starts with catching the baseball and throwing strikes. We weren't good enough on the defensive side to win that game."
 
On the offense: "We have to get back to work. We will get back to timing stuff and get our guys back in the groove. However, the other part of that is, they had good arms. Hitting is very hard, and when you combo that up with good pitching on the other side, it is really hard to score runs."
 
On upcoming series: "We are ready. We just have to play better baseball. We have to play catch and hit with runners in scoring position. It is same ole, same ole in terms of baseball. We are going to work on it all."
 
News and Notes
> It was exactly one year ago that PLNU lost its last series (1-2 vs. CSUDH)
> Quemada has allowed two or fewer runs in all three of his starts
> Micah Pries missed the first game of his career in the last game of the series
 
Up Next
Point Loma and Concordia will play a non-conference, four-game series next week. Each team will host a doubleheader. PLNU will be at Concordia on Friday, before the Eagles come to San Diego on Saturday, Feb. 23.