FULLERTON, Calif. – The OUAZ baseball team split a doubleheader at Hope International on Saturday and recorded the program's first-ever Golden State Athletic Conference win in the process. The historic win came in the first game of the day as the Spirit rallied for a 9-6 win in 11 innings.
With the split, OUAZ is now 9-10 overall and 1-7 in GSAC play. Hope International moved their record to 14-9 overall and 9-3 in the conference.
GAME 1
Trailing 4-3 in the top of the ninth,
Nicco Festa hit a 3-run home run to put the Spirit ahead 6-4. The Royals fought back to score a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to force extra innings. OUAZ scored three times in the top of the 11th inning and
Travis Hawkins worked a perfect bottom half to secure the win.
The Spirit led 3-1 earlier in the game on RBI from
Adrian Salazar,
Esteban Martinez, and
Conner McKinney.
OUAZ had 13 hits in the game with
Chandler Reynard and
Connor Lowrie picking up doubles. They also stole six bases.
Miguel Cirino went 5.1 innings and allowed two runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Hawkins (3-1) got the win after allowing no runs on two hits while working the 10th and 11th innings.
GAME 2
OUAZ took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth when
Austin Shumaker scored on an error. HIU would then strike for nine runs off four different Spirit pitchers in the bottom of the inning to blow the game open.
The Spirit got three back in the top of the seventh on an RBI single from Salazar and a 2-run single from McKinney.
Salazar and
Derek Hayenga had two hits apiece to lead an OUAZ squad that posted seven singles for the game. Shumaker added a hit to extend his hitting streak to a Spirit season-high seven games.
Hawkins (3-2) worked the first 3.2 innings after finishing game one and he allowed three runs on three hits.
UP NEXT
The Spirit will play a non-conference game against Bemidji State on Monday at 2:30 p.m. on Firestorm Field in Phoenix.
