SARAH YORO | staff writer

With a combined total of 17 runs and only two opponent runs, the Cougars played an offensive and defensive balanced doubleheader as they dominated San Diego Christian in a clean sweep, 8-2, 9-0. Contributing to that balance was junior right-handed pitcher Christian Gagne, who threw a complete game and four-hit shutout in game two. This was Gagne’s first career complete game and first career shutout.

“My style of pitching is normally a relief pitching style, so it’s a little tough to come from being a closer or a reliever to a starter,” Gagne said. “It takes a lot out of you and in the seventh inning, I started to feel it. I knew that if I didn’t focus, I was going to lose it.”

Gagne’s fielding error allowed a San Diego Christian bunt which put two Hawks on second and third with only one out in the first inning. Gagne redeemed himself shortly after by striking out the next two batters. For a total of four strikeouts and one walk, Gagne finished the game with 51 strikes out of 77 pitches.

“He’s pitched consistently for us so we flipped the rotation a little bit. Sometimes you get a little nervous when you do that, but today it looks like it was a great move,” head coach Paul Svagdis said. “He throws strikes, pumps the strike zone and competes. He doesn’t get frazzled out there as a pitcher so I was very happy for him.”

The Cougar defense came up big when sophomore first baseman Brice Cutspec collected a Hawks’ grounder at first and threw it to second, connecting with senior shortstop Matt Venegas for the double play.

“You can tell when the defense is on the ball. Everyone is just flying around and making plays and it makes it easier to pitch,” Gagne said. “As long as you keep throwing strikes and pounding the zone, they’re not going to sit back on their heels.”

In game one, APU scored seven of their eight runs off three hits in the first inning, with 11 at-bats. In the fourth inning, junior center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis smacked a homer over right field, scoring the final run for the Cougars.

On the defensive end, the APU pitchers allowed only two runs out of seventeen hits made by the Hawks in game one. Although junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Hodges allowed single runs in the third and fourth inning, he only allowed three more hits until senior left-handed pitcher Zach Pettikas came in for the relief in the seventh. Junior right-handed pitcher Ben Jones came in for the close, helping the Cougars maintain a scoreless five-inning stretch.

In game two, senior catcher Derrick Keeton struck a two-run homer to right-center, with two outs left in the third.

“I just try to stick with the same hitting approach,” Keeton said. “Out here, I just try to put the ball in play because if you get it up in the air, most of the time the wind is blowing and it’ll go out of the ballpark. It’s such a short field.”

For the next play, San Diego Christian pitcher Lance Janke deliberately beamed senior shortstop Matt Venegas in the back. Janke and Hawk’s head coach Pat Horvath were ejected from the game.

“It fired us up, but we just tried to stay calm,” Keeton said. “We didn’t let that affect the way we played. We played clean, the way we know how to play.”

Keeton finished the game three-for-three in game two and junior left fielder Drew Evans went two-for-four with three RBIs.

Despite their victories over the Hawks, Svagdis believes every team in the GSAC is good competition.

“We think everybody’s pretty strong. Every team we play in the conference is really tough and competitive, so I’m not sure we need any more motivation than that when we’re playing a conference game,” Svagdis said. “Anybody can beat you on any given day in baseball. Sometimes you have a guy pitching on the hill and he can shut you down and they had two good pitchers going today. I think we did a good job offensively against their two top guys.”

Svagdis also reminds his men to take one team at a time.

“We focus on the team we have at hand. It sounds like coaching talk, but we really believe it,” Svagdis said. “We’re going to play every inning hard and that’s why I liked what we did today. In baseball, you don’t want to let up because someone is going to sneak up and get you, so we just want to continue to play hard.”