LINCOLN, Calif. – The Chaminade University baseball team salvaged a game in their series against Jessup University on Wednesday with an 11-1, seven-inning, run-rule win at McBean Park.
The Silverswords plated eight runs in the fifth inning and slugged a record four home runs to end their 12-game, 16-day road trip to northern California on a high note. It was also just the second time since the program's resurrection they applied the 10-run mercy rule on an opponent.
Safea Villaruz-Mauai (Hilo, Hawai'i/BYU/Waiakea HS) crushed a pair of solo jacks, his second multi-homer game of the season, and drove in three while
Alex Greb (Seattle/Wenatchee Valley College/Ballard HS) also had three RBI, all coming on one swing.
Xavier Stoker (Cedar City, Utah/College of the Canyons//Canyon View HS) and
Joseph Perez (Goodyear, Ariz./Glendale CC/Verrado HS) combined to hold the Warriors to a single run for just the third time this season.
The win improved the Silverswords to 14-19 and 12-16 in the Pacific West Conference. Jessup, a first-year member of the PacWest, is 20-9 and 17-7 in the conference.
Villaruz-Mauai took the first pitch he saw to lead off the second inning over the right field wall for the game's first run. The senior slugger did it again to lead off the fourth, crushing his second jack of the game, his third in the series, and ninth of the season, to the same area in right, making it 2-0.
The 'Swords put on a hit-fest in the fifth, sending 12 batters to the plate.
Jaren Banis (Wahiawa, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Kamehameha-Kapalama) and
Casey Kudell (Irvine, Calif./Irvine Valley College/Irvine HS) had RBI singles. Villaruz-Mauai was intentionally walked for the fourth time this season leading to Greb's three-run homer that made it 7-0.
CUH wasn't finished in the fifth.
Andrew Karns (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho/Coeur d'Alene) made it 8-0 with a run-producing double then
Aydan Lobetos (Ewa Beach, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Kamehameha-Kapalama), who led off the inning with a single, went yard for the first time this season, a two-run shot, making it 10-0.
The Warriors got a homer of their own in the fifth to take the run-rule out of the equation but Villaruz-Mauai put it back on the docket with an RBI single, his 31st of the season, in the sixth, making it 11-1.
Perez, who relieved Stocker to start the sixth, retired six of the seven batters he faced to finish the game early.
The 'Swords had a season-high 14 hits with Villaruz-Mauai and Lobetos getting three each while Banis and Kudell had two. Stoker went five strong innings, allowing just three hits with three strikeouts, to improve to 2-3 on the season.
Tyler Lamperti took the loss for Jessup, which took three of four in the series.
The Silverswords return to the islands but will step back on a plane, making an interisland flight to the Big Island to start a four-game series on Sunday at the University of Hawai'i Hilo. First pitch of the twin bill is at 3 p.m.
