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Sam

Baseball Brandon Taylor, Sports Information Assistant

Eagles Hold Late Leads for Doubleheader Sweep

Biola sweeps the first weekend series of the 2017 season.

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LA MIRADA, Calif. --- In some ways, Saturday's double-header between the Antelope Valley Pioneers and the Biola Eagles felt like the momentous struggles from the early 2000's between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees: drawn out at-bats and pressure-packed innings that made for close contests. Although the Pioneers won their share of battle in the course of each game, Biola won both wars, 5-4 in the first game and 6-5 in the second.

The difference was the Eagles' ability to wear down their opponents in the bottom halves of innings. Both Pioneers starters were forced out of the ball game before they could complete the fifth inning because Biola batters forced them to average more than 20 pitches in each frame.

That workload spelled a sour end to game one starter Dallas Litscher's outing. After starting the game with a commanding fastball/slider combination, the Eagles finally got to Litscher for three runs in the fifth inning. RBI hits from Jonas Wellan, Rawley Hughes and Ricky Perez turned a two run deficit into a 3-2 lead.

Litscher finished as the tough-luck losing pitcher in game one after 4.2 innings, three earned runs and eight hits allowed.

The Eagles kept hitting into the next inning against reliever John Maxfield, with a big blast to center from Sam Thorne extending the lead to 5-2. Thorne would follow his first home run of the season by pitching the eighth inning for the Eagles and preserving the lead that Daniel Jang would close out in the ninth.

"I got a 2-0 fastball up in the zone [on the homerun] and that's what I was looking for," said Thorne. "I knew that I was in a position to control the count and I just pulled my hands in and got barrel to the ball."

As they did on Friday, the Pioneers fought back in the late innings of game one with runs in the seventh and eighth. But Micah Beyer's nine strikeouts over six quality innings gave the Eagles' bullpen all the breathing room it needed to navigate UAV's gritty resurgence.

"Micah was mixing his pitches well to keep the Pioneers off-balance and did a great job overall," said Thorne. "He did a great job throwing quality strikes and getting strikeouts when we needed them."

Beyer's first win of the season would be followed by Wyatt Haccou's first win of the season after the junior transfer contributed six quality innings of his own. Haccou's strength was his ability to change speeds from a mid 80's fastball to his changeup and slider. He posted zero's on the scoreboard from innings two through five and did not allow a hit over that span.

In the meantime, Biola took a 6-1 lead by making the most of four fielding errors from the Pioneers. Trey Holly had the best line in game two with a double, a run scored and two RBI's. Holly's ground ball back to Pioneers starter JR Arroyo in the second inning ended in the first throwing error for UAV and created a 2-1 lead for Biola that it would not relinquish.

Once the sixth rolled around, Antelope Valley made it a tug-o-war again, scoring three runs behind the two RBI single from outfielder Travis Holm. Holm finished the doubleheader with three RBI's total.

"UAV is a quality ballclub that has grinders for hitters and a lot of quality arms," said Thorne. "Sweeping any team is really tough to do, especially with the doubleheaders on Saturdays. So I'm really proud of the guys for grinding themselves and really proud of Wyatt for the way he competed today."

The Eagles finished the three game sweep with a total of 30 hits and seven doubles. They also posted two saves after Sean McCarrell closed the second game of the doubleheader with a clean frame.

The Eagles travel to La Jolla for an exhibition against UC San Diego on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
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Players Mentioned

Micah Beyer

#28 Micah Beyer

RHP
5' 11"
Junior
R/R
Rawley Hughes

#19 Rawley Hughes

C/1B
6' 0"
Senior
R/R
Daniel Jang

#17 Daniel Jang

RHP/IF
5' 7"
Junior
R/R
Sean McCarrell

#2 Sean McCarrell

IF/RHP
5' 9"
Senior
R/R
Sam Thorne

#14 Sam Thorne

IF/RHP
5' 8"
Senior
R/R
Jonas Wellan

#33 Jonas Wellan

C/1B
6' 0"
Senior
L/R
Trey Holly

#55 Trey Holly

OF
5' 9"
Junior
L/L
Wyatt Haccou

#18 Wyatt Haccou

RHP
6' 0"
Junior
R/R
Ricky Perez

#20 Ricky Perez

SS
6' 0"
Junior
R/R

Players Mentioned

Micah Beyer

#28 Micah Beyer

5' 11"
Junior
R/R
RHP
Rawley Hughes

#19 Rawley Hughes

6' 0"
Senior
R/R
C/1B
Daniel Jang

#17 Daniel Jang

5' 7"
Junior
R/R
RHP/IF
Sean McCarrell

#2 Sean McCarrell

5' 9"
Senior
R/R
IF/RHP
Sam Thorne

#14 Sam Thorne

5' 8"
Senior
R/R
IF/RHP
Jonas Wellan

#33 Jonas Wellan

6' 0"
Senior
L/R
C/1B
Trey Holly

#55 Trey Holly

5' 9"
Junior
L/L
OF
Wyatt Haccou

#18 Wyatt Haccou

6' 0"
Junior
R/R
RHP
Ricky Perez

#20 Ricky Perez

6' 0"
Junior
R/R
SS
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