CLAREMONT, CA - The University of La Verne baseball team began a three-game series with the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on Friday in Claremont, dropping game one 8-3.

Aidan Salcedo and Isaiah Figueroa both picked up two hits and an RBI while Levi Altimarano also drove in a run. Rudy O'Dell pitched two scoreless innings.

The Leopards got on the board early in the top of the first inning when Figueroa singled to center, driving in Salcedo, who had been hit by a pitch in his first at-bat. The Sagehens quickly responded in the bottom half, tying the game before breaking it open in the second inning with five runs on six hits and an error.

La Verne scraped across two more runs in the later innings of the game. In the eighth, Altimarano singled up the middle, allowing Salcedo to score his second run of the game. In the final frame of the game, Aaron Whobrey reached base on a fielding error by Pomona-Pitzer first baseman James Quintero, he eventually came around to score the Leopards third run of the game when Salcedo knocked a single into center field. 

Justin Ries took the loss for La Verne while Max Brunngraber got the win for the Sagehens, tossing six innings of one run ball.

The Leopards will be back in action at Campus West tomorrow to complete the series in a daytime doubleheader, with game times set for 11 a.m. and 2 p.m..