College Baseball: Lions fire more blanks
Vanguard University pitchers don’t have a bullpen, as much as a stockyard this baseball season. And Lions’ coach Rob Pegg has not been shy about showcasing his team’s strength so far.
Five pitchers combined on a two-hit shutout of visiting La Sierra in Monday’s 7-0 nonconference win, in which starter Shaniel Rivera earned the victory by allowing just one hit in five innings.
With relievers Ryan Heinle, Michael Ostrea, Nik Klungreseter and Sam Frakes each adding an inning, the Vanguard pitching staff extended its scoreless-innings streak to 19 1/3.
Rivera, a junior transfer from Nebraska Kearny, had a no-hitter through 4 2/3 Monday and allowed just two balls to be hit out of the infield (a ground-ball single up the middle and a flyout to left field). He struck out five and walked two in his Vanguard debut.
When Frakes entered in the ninth inning, he became the first of 11 Vanguard pitchers this year to make more than one appearance. In the last 19 innings, the Lions’ mound men have combined to allow just five hits and have now surrendered just three earned runs all season (a 1.08 earned-run average in 25 innings).
“Pitching is the strength of our team,” Pegg said. “We lost our top two guys from last year [seven-game winners Eddie Rivera, the Lions’ lone All-Golden State Athletic Conference performer in 2014, and Clayton Voechting], so we knew we had some needs. But we were able to get some real solid guys in to make it the deepest staff in the 12 seasons I’ve been a part of the program, as a head coach, assistant coach and as a player.”
Nine Lions pitchers have contributed to the current scoreless streak and none of the 11 who have taken the mound have allowed more than two runs.
“It’s a battle just to get innings,” said Pegg, who started senior returner Scott Torrey (7-5 last season) in the 5-3 season-opening win over Antelope Valley on Saturday.
Junior Sean Isaac, a transfer from El Camino Community College, started and earned the win in the seven-inning second game of a doubleheader against Antelope Valley.
The shutout was only good enough for a stalemate through three innings Monday, as the Lions stranded seven to that point and hit into a pair of double plays to help waste four of the eight walks issued by La Sierra.
The other four walks came in the fourth inning, when singles by junior center fielder Paul Keating and junior catcher Kevin Bettencourt drove in the first two runs for the hosts (3-0).
Keating and Bettencourt tripled and doubled, respectively, to start the Vanguard sixth, in which sophomore second baseman Justin Vega and junior shortstop Jose Rojas added runs batted in with a single and double, respectively.
Sophomore left fielder Brandon Sandoval capped the scoring with a towering home run in the eighth. The blast equaled Sandoval’s home run total from 2014, when he hit .341 with 30 RBIs and 15 stolen bases.
The Lions totaled seven steals on Monday, three coming from designated runner Justin Davis, who later singled in his only at-bat.
Bettencourt was two for two with a walk and Keating finished two for three for the Lions, for whom senior first baseman David Stone and sophomore right fielder Brock Eissman added singles to the 10-hit attack.
Rojas, a transfer from Fullerton Community College, had eight assists, while senior third baseman Taylor McKnight, who led the Lions with seven homers and 40 RBIs as a junior, had five.
Only an errant pickoff throw to first base by Rivera marred an otherwise pristine defensive performance for the Lions, who had just one error in the first two games.
Pegg said team chemistry is also a huge asset for the Lions this season, which will be dedicated to late assistant coach and adjunct professor Ted Browne, who died of a heart attack in August, weeks before the fall semester began.
“Our first formal gathering as a team was a funeral,” Pegg said. “We’ve committed this season to [Browne]. We have CB on the side of our caps for Coach Browne and Coach Browne Strong is a kind of our team motto.”
Pegg said the Lions, who started 8-0 last season and have won their season opener each of the last six seasons, believe they have what it takes to make this a special season.
“We have high goals,” Pegg said. “We know it’s a tough conference, but we believe we have the talent and chemistry to chase after it with anybody. We don’t predict championships or things like that. All we say is, whoever plays us is going to have their hands full.”
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Nonconference
Vanguard 7, La Sierra 0
SCORE BY INNINGS
LS 000 000 000 – 0 2 0
Vanguard 000 303 01x – 7 10 1
G. Gonzalez, Mena (4), Guerrero (7) and Valenzuela; Rivera, Heinle (6), Ostrea (7), Klungreseter (8), Frakes (9) and Bettencourt, McMath (8). W – Rivera, 1-0. L – G. Gonzales, 0-1. 2B – Rojas (VU), Bettencourt (VU). 3B – Keating (VU). HR – Sandoval (VU).