SAN DIEGO - First Stirling Strong went six innings, allowing just two runs to lead the Point Loma baseball team to an 8-2 win in the opener on Saturday. And not to be outdone, Nathan Garkow struck out 13 in 6.1 innings to lift PLNU to a 2-1 win in the series finale.
 
Game 1: Point Loma built a 5-0 after four innings on a two-run double by Colby Kaneshiro, a two-run homer by Travis Takata and a run-scoring single by Otto Kemp.
 
Stirling Strong (1-2) ran with that lead and delivered his best performance of the season. The junior left-hander went six innings, allowing nine hits and two runs while walking two and striking out four en route to earning his first win as a Sea Lion.
 
Concordia finally broke through for two runs on Strong in the fifth inning, and the Eagles were threatening again in the seventh after the first two batters reached. Coach Justin James then called on Nicholas Cornelius. He promptly gave up a single on the first pitch to load the bases before proceeding to set the next three hitters down in order to escape the jam unscathed.
 
Kemp reached base four times as he went 3-for-4 and was hit by a pitch. John Balliet, Brett O'Toole, and Kaneshiro added multi-hit performances as well.
 
Alex Zalasky (1-1) took the loss. He allowed six hits and five earned runs in 4.2 innings.
 
Game 2: Nathan Garkow fanned 13 in 6.1 innings to lead PLNU to a 2-1 win in the seven-inning series finale.
 
Garkow got first five batters of the game out via a strikeout, and he carried that momentum with him until his very last pitch (87 total).
 
Concordia was able to get one run off him in the third on a safety squeeze before PLNU answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth thanks to three Eagles' errors in the inning.
 
Garkow went 6.1 innings allowing just three hits, two walks, and the one run to go along with his 13 strikeouts. He struck out the side in the first and the fourth innings. 
 
In the seventh, he gave up a leadoff single before striking out the next batter. Coach James then called on John Balliet to close the game. Balliet made it interesting as he loaded the bases before getting Haloa Dudoit to end the game on a ground ball to shortstop.
 
The teams combined for just seven hits in the game, and none went for extra bases. Travis Takata paced PLNU with a 2-for-3 performance.

Team Records
Point Loma (9-5, 0-0 PacWest), Concordia (3-7, 0-0 PacWest)
 
Words from Nathan Garkow


Words from coach James
On Strong's start: "It always starts on the mound and defense. He has been working really hard and has a little bad luck this early in the season, but he kept going at it. He was on the attack with his fastball, and he did a great job for us today."
 
On the offense: "You're not going to blow out good teams, so you have to be able to scratch and claw any way you can. Once again, two weekends in a row we are trying to do better with two strikes and putting balls in play, which allows for cracks in defense to happen and some things to go your way. When you punch out a bunch of times that doesn't happen. But today, in both games today, we were outstanding in our two-strike approach."
 
On Garkow's performance: "Garkow knew he was a start about 25 mins before the game. Because he is such a valuable arm, we didn't know if we were going to need him in the bullpen. We were going to use him in a high leverage situation regardless. Nathan was absolutely outstanding today. He looked like a guy we brought in here who can make a big difference for us on this pitching staff. His fastball command was excellent and his off-speed with pounding the zone as well."
 
On starting PacWest play next week: "Every single game is vital, it doesn't matter if it's a conference game or not. It's always tough games up at Academy of Art, so we are looking forward to the challenge."
  
Up Next
Point Loma will head on the road to open PacWest play next week at Academy of Art. The teams will play doubleheaders on both Friday, Mar. 1 and on Saturday, Mar. 2. Both doubleheaders will begin at Noon.