Left-hander Taylor Siemens and Zach Hedges combined their pitching talents to blank Cal State San Bernardino on nine hits Thursday as Cal Baptist won its sixth baseball game of the young season with a 7-0 victory on a damp afternoon at Arrowhead Credit Union Park.
Siemens nursed a 2-0 lead into the seventh before getting relief help from Hedges to get his first win of the season, yielding eight hits and striking out six in 6.1 innings. Hedges pitched the final 2.1 innings, giving up one hit and fanning four batters.
The Lancers are now 6-0 on the season while the Coyotes are 2-2 heading into a three-game, non-conference series with Cal State L.A., starting Friday at 2 p.m. in Los Angeles.
Seniors
Johnnie Haas and
Jesus Beltran along with freshman
Darren Dworak each had two hits for the Coyotes, who had their chances to score but couldn't get the timely hit, leaving 11 runners stranded in the nine-inning contest.
Matt Johnson and Jake Johnson each had two hits for the Lancers in their 10-hit attack off three Coyotes pitchers. The loss went to senior right-hander
Ernie Medina, who gave up two scratch runs in four innings while allowing just two hits and striking three.
Reliever
Chad Borowski gave up two runs on five hits in four innings of relief and Ian O'Connor was touched up for three runs, only one of them earned in the ninth to make the game more of a rout than it actually was.
Cal Baptist manufactured the only runs it really needed early. In the second inning, Jack Johnson doubled with one out, advanced to third in a sacrifice by Brian Sharp and scored on Medina's balk.
In the third inning, former Coyote Levi Garrett doubled to right to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a groundout and later scored on a bases-loaded walk issued by Medina.
The Coyotes stranded two runners in the first, third and seventh and left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth as Hedges struck out
Cody Madison for the second out and induced
Omar Manzanarez to hit a bouncer back to the mound for the final out.
