A Joyeful Senior Day sweep
ORANGE – On Senior Day, senior Kyle Joye delivered two game-winning hits as the Chapman University baseball team completed a series sweep of Cal Lutheran. The Panthers took the first game of the doubleheader 2-1 before walking off with a 6-5 win in game two.
With the two wins, Chapman clinched the top seed in next week's SCIAC Tournament and will be the host site for the double elimination tournament.
Game 1 – W, 2-1
A pitchers' duel from start to finish, senior Riley Glenn worked in and out of trouble for six innings but held the Kingsmen to one run on three hits, striking out six in the 2-1 victory. On the other side, Mason Snodgrass held the Panthers to just two runs, but a home run from Joye in the seventh broke the 1-1 tie and provided the difference.
Junior Ben Ziv relieved Glenn in the seventh, allowing no runs on only two hits, striking out four to pick up the win on the mound.
The scoring started in the second inning when Joye started a two-out rally with a hit by pitch. Senior Mike Gorman followed with a free pass of his own, drawing a walk. Graduate transfer Nick Kondo then came to the plate and poked a single down the right field line, scoring Joye.
The Kingsmen tied the game in the fourth after Glenn walked in a run. Joye's solo shot was the only other run in the game as the Panthers clinched the series and the top seed in next week's SCIAC Tournament.
Game 2 – W, 6-5
After the senior day festivities a senior – who was also the hero in game one – walked it off for the Panthers in game two. Joye knocked in junior Cooper Foard from third after Foard doubled to lead off the inning, missing a game-winning home run by inches.
Sophomore Grant Manning had the best outing of his young career. After Cal Lutheran hung two runs on the board in the third, Manning retired the next 10 batters in a row and 13 of the next 14. From the fourth to the sixth innings he struck out eight batters in a row as the Panthers took the lead.
Cal Lutheran broke through for two runs, starting off the scoring in the third. Chapman answered back with one run in the bottom half on a Drew Littwin single. Two innings later, the Panthers took the lead, 4-2.
Joye led off with a double, Gorman walked, and Cole Minato's bunt set up runners on second and third with one out. Brad Shimabuku singled to drive in Joye, then he and Gorman would eventually score on a wild pitch and Littwin ground out.
Cal Lutheran loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth and put up a three-run inning of their own to regain the lead, 5-4. After Shimabuku led off the bottom half of the inning with a double, he was sacrificed over to second, took third on a wild pitch and scored when the throw down to third sailed into left field to tie the game at 5-5.
Freshman Hank Tobias tossed a scoreless ninth before Joye's walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth.
The Panthers will host the SCIAC Tournament next weekend The double elimination tournament will feature the four SCIAC teams playing this season – Chapman, Cal Lutheran, Redlands and La Verne. Seeds are still to be determined.