TUCSON, Ariz. - After a high scoring affair yesterday, Gustavus baseball held La Verne to four runs today, but could find five or more, dropping the second game in Tucson to the Leopards, 4-2.
Gustavus scored first, with junior
Dylan Kopesky (Mankato, Minn.) driving home sophomore
Jackson Golberg (Savage, Minn.) in the bottom of the third inning. The team doubled their lead in the next inning with another sacrifice play, with
Joe Burns (Eden Prairie, Minn.) scoring on a line out by
Charles Gearen (Minneapolis, Minn.).
The fifth inning was where the Leopards turned it around, scoring two runs. First, La Verne was walked to bring home a run and the second came from a fielder's choice on a six inning at bat. Senior
Jacob Weckop (Randolph, Minn.) got out of a jam, forcing a pop up to
Ross Hebel (Prior Lake, Minn.) to escape the inning tied at two.
The score remained tied into the eighth inning, where a La Verne batter being hit by a pitch brought home what would be the winning run. The Leopards would add one more in the end of the inning, bringing their lead to two. Gustavus had runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom half of the inning, but could not generate anything substantial, remaining down two.
Neither team had a hit or runner on base in the ninth, resulting in a loss for the Gusties, dropping their season total to 6-2. Gustavus had six hits in the loss and only left four runners on base, but the team hit seven batters to allow La Verne to take the lead.
The Gusties are back in action tomorrow in Tucson for their last two games, taking on Aurora twice at 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Central Time, 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Mountain Time.
