College Baseball: Lions double up Grace

The Vanguard University baseball team opened a 6-1 lead, then held on for an 8-4 nonconference victory over visiting Grace University on Wednesday. Or, as Vanguard Coach Rob Pegg likes to call it: a blowout.

The Lions (16-6) are quite used to grinding with narrow margins this season, having had 15 games decided by three of fewer runs, 13 of those by two or fewer. Only four times has Vanguard won by more than four and Wednesday marked the team’s second four-run victory of the season.

“For some reason we don’t like to get a lot of separation,” said Pegg, whose losses have included four one-run setbacks and a two-run verdict. “We like to keep teams right there.”

The Vanguard offense was right there from the outset against the Royals, based in Omaha, Neb. Junior center fielder Paul Keating doubled in a run in the first inning, the Lions parlayed three errors into a run in the second, and sophomore right fielder Brock Eissman lined a three-run home run to right in the fourth to give five Vanguard pitchers all they would need.

Keating also doubled in a run in the eighth and was three for three, while Eissman finished two for four to also spearhead the hosts’ nine-hit attack.

It was Eissman’s team-leading fourth dinger of the season. He also tops the squad with 19 RBIs, three more than Keating, who raised his average to .378.

Junior right-hander Ryan Heinle, making his first start of the season, pitched five strong innings to win his first decision. He allowed four hits and one run, walked none and struck out three.

“This is our only double midweek [games on Tuesday and Wednesday] of the season, so we went with our fifth starter,” Pegg said. “Heinle came out and did a fantastic job. He’s a strike thrower and we knew he had it in him. He set a good tone.”

Heinle retired the first seven Royals. Then, after three straight hits and a hit batter put Grace on the scoreboard in the third, he set down the next five and did not allow a runner to reach second base the rest of his outing.

Alex Camacho, a 6-foot-7 freshman making his first appearance, and senior Sam Frakes both worked a scoreless relief inning for the Lions.

Relievers Kurt Gairing and Marshall McKinnon both surrendered one run in their one-inning stints, as the Royals (2-4) had 10 singles among their 11 hits,

Sophomore left fielder Brandon Sandoval singled, reached base three times, scored once and stole two bases, giving him 17 steals in 19 attempts this season for the Lions.

David Stone, Mike Flores and Taylor McKnight added hits for Vanguard, which has won seven of its last eight and nine of its last 11 heading into an important three-game series with Golden State Athletic Conference-leading Concordia, beginning Friday at home at 2 p.m.

The unranked Lions are 11-4 in conference and sit in third place, behind No. 18-ranked Concordia (13-2, 11-2 in conference) and No. 20-ranked The Master’s College (12-3, 10-3).

“We’re going to make a decision about whether we want to hang around [in the GSAC title picture] or battle around the middle,” Pegg said of the three-game set that includes a doubleheader on Saturday at home that begins at 11 a.m.

Four errors by the Royals, coached by 14-year major league veteran Thad Bosley, led to three unearned runs to help the Vanguard cause.

—

Nonconference

Vanguard 8, Grace 4

SCORE BY INNING

Grace 001 000 111 – 4 11 4

VU 120 300 02x – 8 9 1

Lopez, Brice (6), Castro (8), Fern (8) and Ochoa; Heinle, Camacho (6), Gairing (7), McKinnon (8), Frakes (9). W – Heinle, 1-0. L – Lopez, 0-1. 2B – Keating (VU) 2, Miranda (G). HR – Eissman (VU).