Salsedo, Jebbia Hit Walk Off Winners, Tigers Take Two from Lewis & Clark

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Feb. 14, 2009) – The Tigers and Pioneers played a pair of close games today on Anderson Field, but Occidental College came-from-behind to win both, 5-4 and 2-1, by way of the long ball against Lewis & Clark on their “opening day”.

In game one the Tigers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Spencer Woolwine scored the first of his two runs of the game. Lewis & Clark wasted no time returning the favor, knotting the game at 1-1 after two innings.

The Pioneers used four hits (two doubles) and a Tigers blunder in the top of the fourth to push three runs across the plate, taking a 4-1 lead. Nick Smallman took the ball from Ross Pomerantz with two outs in the fourth and went on to toss 2.1 scoreless innings, surrendering just one hit.

Occidental produced its second run in the bottom of the fourth when Jason Jebbia, who bunted for a single, scored on Kevin Ozaki’s ground ball to the right side. 

After Brooks Belter (3-0) shut the door in the top of the eighth the Tigers put together a rally in the bottom part of the frame. Nick Saraceni collected his second hit of the day and promptly stole second base before moving to third on a single by Dan Kelley. Woolwine drove in Saraceni leaving a man on for Jebbia (2-for-4, 3RBI, two runs). With two outs in the inning he connected for a two-run, game-winning homerun to right field.

Although Lewis & Clark threatened in the ninth with runners on first and third with one out, Woolwine forced a fly ball out followed by a ground ball to earn his first save of 2009.

Michael Ball was tagged with the loss for LC in game one after starter Alex St. Pierre held the Tigers to two runs on three hits while striking out four over 6.2 innings.

The excitement continued in the second game of the day, a scheduled seven inning affair. Again Occidental took the lead first when Casey Harms drove in Alex Bukac, who led off the sixth with a single.

Lewis & Clark was not going away that easily as Neil Finch pulled the ball out down the left field line, tying the game at 1-1 in the top of the seventh. The Pioneers rallied with two outs on back-to-back hits from leadoff man Ryan Kostecka and Parker Dane to put two runners in scoring position. Oxy reliever Tyler Eyrich forced a ground ball ending the inning.

Occidental (7-1) wasted no time at all in the eight as Anthony Salsedo led off the eight with a solo homerun, his third of the season, off Evan Fairmont, to give the Tigers their second victory of the day. Kieran Doherty earned the win getting the final two outs in the eighth.

Tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. the teams will meet again for the final game of the three-game series.