Box Score COSTA MESA, Calif. --- The Vanguard Lions used a spurt of early offense and a big inning late to work a 10-4 win over Biola Baseball in the opening game of the final regular season series on Friday afternoon.
 
Biola sent Sean McCarrell to the bump for his first Golden State Athletic Conference start of the 2016 season. McCarrell came into this appearance with a 0.00 ERA in his two previous starts this season, both in non-conference outings.
 
The Lions tagged him for five earned runs in the first three innings as they built a big lead early on. McCarrell had to labor all afternoon as Head Coach Jay Sullenger left him in to deal with 36 batters over seven innings of work. He ultimately ended up with six earned in those seven innings as he was saddled with his first loss of the year.

"McCarrell pitched a gutsy performance," said Head Coach Jay Sullenger.
 
His offense did not do much to support him in the early innings as they were mystified by Vanguard's starter, Sean Isaac, and were actually held without a hit or base runner through the first four full innings.
 
By the time the bats did begin to liven up against Isaac in the fifth inning the game had already slipped to the point where it was out of reach at 5-0.
 
The Eagles managed RBI singles from Anj Bourgeois and Joey Magro in a two-run fifth and got a 2-RBI double from Jerron Largusa in the sixth, but it was too little, too late. The positive sign for Head Coach Jay Sulleneger is that all of his run production in this one came as a direct result of a hit by a freshman.
 
Vanguard tacked on a single run in the fifth and four more in a crushing eighth inning to put the game completely out of reach at the 10-4 final score. The Lions turned it up a notch when there was two outs in the inning as they hit .529 in those situations during this game. They also recorded a hit each time they had a runner at third base and fewer than two outs, which contributed greatly to their double-digit run total.
 
Largusa and Jonas Wellan each had multi-hit games for the Eagles. Wellan was 2-for-4 and scored two of the Eagles' four runs in a productive day in the cleanup spot.
 
The loss drops Biola to 14-14 in Golden State Athletic Conference play, which puts them into a tie for fifth place in the conference. The top-5 teams in the regular season standings advance to the GSAC Tournament and have a chance at nationals.
 
Tomorrow is the last day of the regular season and Biola and San Diego Christian each play two games to determine their final regular season records and determine who claims that fifth spot. Biola holds the tiebreaker over SDC if the two teams end with an identical record, because the Eagles were 2-1 head-to-head with the Hawks in 2016.
 
Play begins at 11:00 a.m. in Costa Mesa on Saturday morning.

"We are excited to leave it on the field tomorrow," said Sullenger.