(SAN DIEGO) No. 4 PLNU Baseball clinched at least a share of the PacWest regular season title on Friday after slugging its way to a pair of wins against Biola at Carroll B. Land Stadium.
The Sea Lions, who won 12-2 and 8-4, now just need one win in Saturday's road doubleheader against the Eagles or one loss by Westmont at Concordia to claim a third-straight outright conference title.
Friday was Senior Day at The Point, and the seniors made plenty of noise on both sides of the ball.
Dylan Miller got the nod in game one and had Biola out of sorts all day. His six innings of work, while surrendering only two runs, earned him his tenth win of the season.
With the bats, PLNU jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the first, all with two outs. A
Scott Anderson single and
Bryson Hashimoto walk extended the inning for
Jake Entrekin, who promptly sent a ball over the right-center scoreboard.
A trio of singles from
Hunter Otjen,
Jack Malone and
Tommy Molina then extended the lead to four.
The Sea Lions plated another four runs in the third inning after the same six, seven and eight batters ripped singles into the outfield.
Joey Nicolai's sacrifice fly made it 5-0 before
Eric Smelko launched a three-run homer through the left field wind to blow the game wide open.
Biola scored twice in the fourth but that was the last time Biola would touch home.
Point Loma erupted for another four-run inning in the bottom of the sixth. Anderson hit a homer to right, Otjen batted one in on a double, and Malone wrapped up the fun with a two-run shot off the scoreboard to extend PLNU's lead to 10 runs.
Max Montplaisir made quick work of Biola in the top of the seventh and game one was concluded there due to the mercy rule.
Senior
Cole Colleran took the mound in the latter half of the doubleheader, holding the Eagles to just two first inning runs during his outing.
Point Loma shaved its deficit in half in the bottom of the first, when Smelko led things off with a double before Anderson's single moved him over.
Hashimoto then laid down a bunt that no Biola infielder was able to collect in time to get Smelko out at home, and the Sea Lions were on the board.
PLNU tacked on three more runs in the second to take its first lead at 4-2. Nicolai sent a solo shot over the left field fence, and
Esai Santos took Biola deep for a two-run home run a few batters later.
Santos' four-bagger was anything but easy, as the senior fouled off eighth-straight pitches before sending the 13th pitch of the at-bat over the right field wall.
Five seniors in total went deep on Senior Day after Nicolai and Santos' big flies in the third.
The vets got back to work in the fourth with Smelko tripling, Santos knocking him in with a single and Anderson hitting his second homer of the day to right, pushing the lead to 7-2.
With that home run, Anderson tied PLNU's program record for career runs scored with 175.
Biola scored twice in the fifth to make it a three-run game before
Owen May scored on a wild pitch after getting on base with a single.
Otjen and
James Sashin then took care of the final two innings on the bump, and Point Loma cruised to an 8-4 win. The pair of victories came on 19 hits from the seniors on their big day, including nine extra-base hits.
Point Loma (35-8-1 overall, 24-5-1 PacWest) will now conclude regular season play with a pair of games on Saturday at Biola. First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader in La Mirada is scheduled for noon.
