By Josh Banker

04/09/09

The Master's Gets Revenge, Sweeps Vanguard

Siegmund took the first loss

Akins had a hit in each game

Godfrey pitched 3 innings in relief

Schaniel stroked 3 hits for VU

Carls pitched the final 2 innings

Manzano prepares for a pickoff throw

Costa Mesa, Calif. – The sting of two Vanguard come-from-behind wins in Santa Clarita on March 21st must have still been on the minds of the 22nd-ranked Mustangs and their pitching staff, especially. Playing with what seemed to be some extra purpose, the Mustangs held the Lions to just three runs on the day to pull off an 8-2 and 5-1 GSAC sweep Thursday afternoon.

Vanguard drops to 16-20 overall and 11-17 in the GSAC while the Mustangs improve to 29-14 on the year and 18-10 in conference play with the sweep.

Tim Woodward went the distance to pick up his team-leading seventh win of the season as the Mustangs defeated the Lions 8-2 in the first game of a GSAC doubleheader that was created by a rain out on February 7th in Costa Mesa.

Delayed by 45 minutes due to a traffic snarl that kept The Master’s stuck on the freeway from Santa Clarita, game one never seemed to get started offensively for Vanguard who struck for their first hit of the game off Woodward in the bottom of the fourth when third baseman Jason Schaniel led off with a single to right. By then, the Lions had already been dealt a 3-0 hole thanks to an RBI single in the top of the first by right fielder Eric Blackwell and two runs in the top of fourth on an RBI single by Dustin Jones and a sacrifice fly from Michael Bando.

Woodward, however, was the story of the day striking out six and allowing just one earned run on six hits and a walk. Going the distance is nothing new to Woodward though as this being his 11th start producing already his eighth complete game of the year.

Brett Siegmund gave up six hits and four runs in four innings for the Lions to fall to 1-2 on the season while Brandon Godfrey and Christopher Carls mopped up the final five innings in relief giving up three earned runs.

The Mustangs pounded out 13 hits in game one led by first baseman Jared Otto’s 4-for-5 day at the plate. Otto singled up the middle in the fifth scoring two to make the game 5-0, and then tacked on an RBI single in the seventh and an RBI double in the ninth for good measure to bring his run batted in total to four on the afternoon. He had only had nine RBI the entire season going into game one.

Mustang catcher Tyler Diamond and second baseman Joe Zeller each had three hits apiece. The Master’s heart of the lineup, hitters three through seven, combined to bat 12-for-23 with five RBIs and seven runs scored.

Vanguard made the game interesting scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth to make it 6-2 as a balk got the Lions on the board and Schaniel doubled to left-center to plate run number two. The excitement was short-lived, however, with the Mustangs scoring twice in the ninth and the Lions being set down in order to finish game one.

More of the same offensive struggles continued for the Lions in game two as Zeller, who had three hits at the plate in game one, shut down the Vanguard bats to throw the second complete game of the day for The Master’s.

Zeller moves to 5-3 this season and snags his seventh complete game of the year going all seven innings, allowing just one unearned run and no walks on six hits with four strikeouts.

At the plate Zeller was stellar again as he went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs that certainly helped his own cause. The RBI single cracked in the fourth ignited a four-run inning for the Mustangs that was capped by a two-run double by left fielder Kirk Nungester.

Michael Anderson went 4.1 innings for the Lions allowing all five runs on six hits with three strikeouts and four walks to fall to 6-4 on the year.

First baseman Joshua Manzano led Vanguard with a pair of hits in three at-bats and scored the only run of game two for the Lions on an RBI groundout by second baseman Ethan Gentry.

Vanguard will take the rest of the Easter weekend off before returning to action for an away-and-home series with the Sea Lions from Point Loma Nazarene University starting Wednesday, April 15th in San Diego at 3 p.m.

Livestats

Game 1 Boxscore

Game 2 Boxscore