#12 PILOTS SWEEP SATURDAY, WIN SERIES OVER CLARKE
The 12th ranked LSUS baseball team took care of business on Saturday to pick up another series win under Head Coach Brad Neffendorf. The Pilots got a shutout performance from Kevin Miranda in their 4-0 win in game one before exploding for 10 runs in their 10-5 win in the series finale. LSUS has now won every series of the season and is 13-2 on the year.
GAME ONE
The storyline from game one was the dominant performance on the mound from Kevin Miranda. Miranda took the ball and went seven scoreless innings for the complete game shutout. He allowed just two hit sin the game and walked just one batter while striking out six batters. He needed just 84 pitches to complete the gem. It is the first complete game shutout for a Pilots' pitcher this season. Miranda moved to 2-1 with the excellent performance. Miranda is today's Player of the Game.
Offensively, the Pilots took advantage of mistakes from Clarke and continued to win games with their speed and aggresiveness on the basepaths. Clarke made five errors in the game and LSUS made the pay for them with four runs. Only two of the runs against Clarke' pitchers were earned in the game. Kyle Jones hit his third home run of the season for the Pilots in the sixth inning. Payton Robertson picked up a pair of hits in the contest and Taylor Fajardo doubled twice adding an RBI.
GAME TWO - BOX SCORE
Game two was a much higher scoring affair as the Pilots pushed across a series-high 10 runs in the victory. Taylor Fajardo led the way for LSUS with a pair of hits including a homerun along with three runs and three RBI. Fajardo is the lone leader on the team with five homeruns and 16 RBI. Austin McNicholas picked up a pair of hits and drove in two runs, as well. Corey Bellot had his first multi-hit performance of the season as he doubled and tripled in the contest. LSUS had nine hits in the game and struck out just four times. The Pilots also added five more stolen bases to their tally.
Andrew Lowe took the ball for the Pilots on the mound and won his third game of the year, improving to 3-0. Lowe tossed four innings of two-hit, one-run baseball. He struck out four batters in route to the win. Quintana (2.1 IP, 2 ER), Fortenberry (0 IP, 1 ER), Sholders (1.2 IP, 1 ER) and Naythan Arroyo (1 IP, 0 ER) finished off the win for the Pilots.
Up Next: LSUS opens conference play on the road against Jarvis Christian on Friday.