BOX SCORE
LA MIRADA, Calif. — Junior pitcher Brian Albert allowed just two hits and no earned runs over seven innings in his Biola debut, but was tagged with the loss as the Eagles fell 2-1 to the University of La Verne in a non-conference game on Friday afternoon at Eagles Diamond.
Biola drops to 1-1 on the season with the loss while the Leopards improve to 1-0.
Albert (0-1), who transferred to Biola from Rio Hondo College, pitched a spectacular game for the Eagles, allowing just two unearned runs while striking out three in his debut. However, he was out-dueled by the Leopard's Ryan Rose (1-0), who tossed six shutout innings, scattered seven hits and struck out three.
After retiring the first nine batters he faced, Albert allowed hit ULV's Jack Mehl with a pitch to lead off the fourth inning. Dimitre Mondotte followed with a single to left and Mehl hustled into third ahead of the throw by Biola leftfielder Chad Pace. Third baseman Brent Chavez then tried to throw out Mondotte who was heading to second, but his throw get away from the second baseman allowing Mehl to score and Mondotte to move to third. Albert then retired Scott Marcus with a shallow fly to center and–after hitting Jon-Michael Hattabaugh with a pitch–got a double-play to end the threat.
In the sixth, La Verne added a second, unearned run to go up 2-0. Mehl got aboard with a one-out single, stole second and went to third as catcher Daniel Bodemer's throw hit the bag and caromed off to right field. He then scored as Mondotte hit a sacrifice fly to deep left-center field.
Biola scored its lone run of the game in the eighth inning, also taking advantage of errors by its opponent. Chris Foreman led off the frame by reaching on an error by the shortstop Mehl and advanced to second as pitcher Allen Komori's pickoff attempt sailed wide of first. Foreman advanced to third on a ground out by Hawkins Gebbers and scored on a wild pitch.
La Verne's Grant Wheatley came on in the ninth and retired the Eagles in order to nail down his first save of the season.
The Eagles had a number of good chances in the game, especially off Rose. In the third and sixth innings, Biola had two runners aboard with two outs, needing just a clutch single to get on the board. However, Rose stepped up and struck out Gebbers in the third and Chavez in the sixth to end both threats.
Junior Nick Rotkowitz continued his hot start with the Eagles, going 2-for-4 in the game, matching his performance in the season-opener on Tuesday. He was the only player on either team to record more than one hit in the game.
The Eagles' pitching has been outstanding through the first two games, allowing just two unearned runs on seven hits while striking out 14 in 18 innings.
The teams close out the home-and-home series on Saturday (Feb. 2) at 1:00 p.m. at Ben Hines Field in La Verne.
