Box Score Eri--- With great pitching all you need is a little bit of offense in order to win a baseball game. In the postseason great pitching is almost always what leads teams to victory, and in its first postseason game since 2012 Biola Baseball had exactly that.
 
Eric Diomartich came out for what would likely be his only start of the 2016 Golden State Athletic Conference tournament and did not disappoint in the slightest. He went 8.1 innings of four-hit baseball and allowed just two earned runs as the Eagles earned a 4-2 victory to move into the winner's bracket and force a date with No. 1 seed Westmont later in the afternoon.
 
The biggest impact coming in Diomartich's outing was that he held Menlo's bash brothers Lucas Erceg and Garrett Gemgnani, who combined for 34 homeruns this season, to an 0-for-6 line with four strikeouts.
 
His dominance on the bump allowed Biola's offense to breathe free and easy and create runs when they were given the opportunity rather try to force anything against a Menlo offense that came into the game averaging 6.6 runs-per-game.
 
"Dio did a great job. He did exactly what you need to do in a tournament," said Head Coach Jay Sullenger. "You want your starters to take care of business and he did that, which gave our bullpen the rest they needed. He was confident the whole time and looked good."
 
The Eagles got on the board in the second inning when four walks brought Rawley Hughes across home plate to open the scoring. The walk was Biola's biggest weapon early on as the Menlo starter lasted just four innings because he walked five eagles and hit another.
 
The lead was extended to two in the top of the fourth when Jimmy Gallarda took a 2-1 pitch out of the park to double Biola's advantage and get the ball back to Diomartich with a bit of insurance in his pocket.
 
The Oaks finally managed to get on the board in the fifth inning when Justin Cooney-Sylk hit a leadoff homer that put a momentary chink in the armor of Diomartich. Tensions were immediately relieved as Dio retired the next three hitters in order to get out of the inning with no more damage done.
 
The bottom of the sixth was another time when the Eagles' senior starter was walking on eggshells. He allowed a leadoff double and then walked another, which allowed Menlo to get two runners on with less than two outs in the inning and the heart of the Oaks' order up to bat.
 
Menlo would eventually get runners to second and third as they threatened to steal the lead, but Diomartich got a two-out strikeout against Jon Nelson to get out of the inning unscathed.
 
Biola added two more insurance runs in the top of the eighth. Alec de Watteville scored on a Jeremy Barth single and Hughes scored for the second time as Gallarda executed a perfect squeeze bunt. These would prove to come in handy later in the game.

"We were on the verge of breaking through offensively all day. They did a good job of keeping us off balance, but when we needed to come through the guys did," said Sullenger. "It was great to see them come through at the end, and of course it was needed with how it finished."
 
Sullenger stuck with his senior lefty into the ninth inning, which proved to be a solid decision as he was able to get Menlo's best hitter, Erceg, to fly out to begin the inning. He ran into a spot of trouble as the next two hitters reached and that forced the Eagles to go to the pen and call on Daniel Jang.
 
Jang allowed a sacrifice fly that allowed the Oaks to tighten it to a two-run game, but then promptly elicited a groundout to end the game and secure his first save of the tournament and fourth of the year.
 
Biola moves on to face No. 1 seed, regular season conference champion and tournament host Westmont at 3:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Live video and stats available at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/westmont/.