SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Corban University baseball team held a lead late against No. 8-ranked Westmont College (Calif.) on Saturday afternoon, but the Warriors ultimately were unable to finish the job, losing the opener of the series against Westmont in walk-off fashion, 4-3. Westmont would then go on to win the nightcap, 7-1.
"It was a tough loss in game one," said Corban head coach Jeff McKay. "They are a top-10 type team, and you have to put those types of teams away when you have the chance. We had some struggles offensively all day, and we showed some rust having not played in two weeks."
In the opener, Rilyn Lewchuk was dealing early on and had the Westmont hitters guessing, keeping them off of the scoreboard for a while. Ryan Rosas gave the Warriors the lead in the third frame with an RBI single, and then Drew Loera registered an RBI groundout to make it 2-0.
While Westmont cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third, Benjamin Liogon responded for the Warriors in the fifth with an RBI base knock down the left-field line to make it 3-1.
The score would stay that way until the seventh when eighth-ranked Westmont began to mount its comeback, first with a home run over the right field fence. Then Westmont scored again in the eighth to tie things up at 3-3, and in the ninth frame with the bases loaded and two outs, Westmont won on a fielder's choice that was unable to get the lead runner, resulting in the win for the home squad.
Lewchuk tossed 6.1 innings while allowing two runs and striking out five.
At the dish, Rosas finished with two hits while Jackson Smith totaled two hits as well.
In the second game of the day, things seemed to be going well for Corban until the fourth inning rolled around, and Westmont scored six runs in the inning and never looked back en route to the 7-1 triumph.
Corban's one run came when Ethan Bragg blasted a home run over the fence in the seventh inning. Kyle Kilian provided another bright spot with a 2-for-4 showing at the dish in the defeat.
"These games will make us better," said McKay. "We play a lot of very good teams this week. We enjoyed the opportunity to play in the sunshine and at a great facility."
Corban (3-3) takes Sunday off before returning to the diamond on Monday for another game against Westmont. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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