ORANGE, CA — Niko Urquidi pitched lights out, and the No. 11 University of La Verne baseball team earned a 4-2 win in their series opener against Northwest Conference opponent Pacific University.
The game featured a pair of defending conference champions from a year ago. The game originally scheduled to be played at Ben Hines Field was moved to Hart Park, home of the Chapman Panthers, as part of scheduling shuffling due to anticipated rain on Saturday.
Urquidi struck out a career-high 13 batters, seven looking, to pick up his second win of the season while scattering four hits and walking one. The freshman has been on a hot streak in his last three outings, striking out 27 batters in 16 and two-thirds innings of work.
Catcher Nathan Perry led the Leopards at the plate with two hits, two RBIs, and a double.
Anthony Salcedo got the Leopards' offense rolling in the third with a leadoff triple to left center. Two batters later, Jason Givens brought him in with a sacrifice fly to center. Perry added to the Leopards' lead when he doubled in Matthew Diaz, who reached after getting hit by a pitch, to put his squad up 2-0. Salcedo finished the game 2-2.
The Leopards scored a pair of runners in the next two innings to double their lead. In the fourth, La Verne used some small ball to generate a run. After Noah Garcia led off with a single, designated hitter Logan Corthell moved him over 90 feet with a sacrifice bunt, and Benny Vogel sent him to third with an infield ground out. Salcedo finished off the sequence with a push bunt single to score Garcia.
Perry again came through for the Leopards in the fifth, singling in Givens with a hit to right, extending La Verne's lead to 4-0.
The Boxers started to make things interesting in the top of the seventh, cutting the Leopards' lead in half after a triple to center by Ty Yukumoto plated a pair of runners. Vogel made a spectacular play to end the threat and strand Yukumoto at third, leaping at the fence to snag a would-be RBI from the Boxers.
Ethan Galindo had a clutch outing when he was called in for relief in the eighth with a pair of runners on and no outs. He retired the next three batters to get the Leopards out of the jam and protect their 4-2 lead.
Austin Klopfenstein stepped onto the mound for the final out, striking out a batter to earn his first save of the year. Garret Halbeisen pitched one inning and struck out two.
Season Impact
The Leopards improve to 14-4-1 overall.
Next Game
The Leopards return to Ben Hines Field for a true home game tomorrow to complete the series with the Boxers. The squads will face off in a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m.
