ORANGE, Calif. — The Chapman University baseball team swept visiting Pacific Lutheran with four wins in two back-to-back doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday. In the last two games, the Panthers showed impeccable poise crawling back into the game in the eighth inning of the first game to win 4-3. In the second game, their bats got hot as they went on to win 14-6.
In game one, Chapman came roaring back from down 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, putting away four runs almost consecutively. A pair of errors left
Andrew Powers and
Brent Valentine on base with the freshman
Keegan Goddard up to bat. He swung a beautiful ball into right center field which turned into a triple and brought his two teammates home. Then,
Joey Capobianco came up to bat, and followed suit, also earning a triple to bring Goddard home, and give Chapman the game winning run.
Graham Stogner checked into the game in the bottom of the ninth with just three outs left to close out the game. He struckout two, and earned the save on his second strikeout. Stogner roared into his glove as he ran off the field with a look of pure satisfaction knowing his team was building momentum.
In game two, Chapman dominated from start to finish. The team had four runs in the first, fourth and fifth innings, to go along with 17 hits, zero errors and 11 team RBI.
Tate Zimmerman,
Ryan Nopper,
Brady Altman and
Nick Molina all exploded offensively to lead the way. Zimmerman recorded three runs on three hits, Altman had two runs on two hits and an RBI, while Nopper had two runs, one hit and an RBI. Molina added in another three hits, one run and four RBI to round out the offensive explosion.
On the mound, Stogner,
Finean Hunter-Kenney and
Jacob Moreda closed out the game's last four innings in dominant fashion. They all gave up zero runs, just one hit each and struckout four to end the game and the series in dominant fashion.
Chapman will take their sixth straight series win back into SCIAC play against Redlands. The Panthers now sit at 18-13 overall, 8-7 in conference play. They host the Bulldogs on Friday, April 17 at 3 PM.
