Written by Student Assistant Sarah Cornell-Maier

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Pacific Lutheran University baseball team started off their weekend against defending national champion California Lutheran University with a bang on Friday, taking the game in a 6-0 shutout.

The first two innings of the game were fairly quiet, with one hit per team within those innings. For the Lutes (21-12), however, the third inning proved to be a dominant one.

To start off the first inning, Adam Stump hit a single up the middle, and was then driven to second on a sacrifice bunt from Matt Vick. Connor Cantu drove in the first run of the game with a single up the middle, and then stole second. Anthony Gosline reached on a fielding error, and Cantu advanced to third. A Cole Johnson home run scored three additional runs on the inning, putting the Lutes ahead 4-0 to get the scoring started.

The Lutes added onto their lead in the top of the seventh inning, with a Cantu triple putting him on base to eventually be driven in by a Gosline single, bringing the PLU lead to 5-0.

Cantu's hitting on the day wasn't done in the seventh inning, however; A soaring homer in the top of the ninth put the Lutes ahead by the eventual winning amount, 6-0.

"First of all, it's great to be in California playing against Cal Lu. Their field, and campus are beautiful, the weather was perfect, and in the past few years we've played a lot of competitive games against each other. There's not much more you can ask for," said Cantu. 

Throughout the game, the players for California Lutheran (17-15) couldn't compete against the dominant pitching by the Lutes. Johnson started on the mound, pitching a solid 5 1/3 innings for the Lutes, only allowing seven hits and striking out five. He was relieved by Alex Gregory, who pitched 2 2/3 hitless innings for the Lutes. To close out the game, Tanner Zuber came in and only allowed a single hit to maintain the shutout for the Lutes. On the game, the Lute pitchers didn't allow a single run, and stranded nine players on base.

"Today we came away with the win because Cole, Alex, and Tanner all performed well on the mound, and our defense was able to keep them from scoring. As for me, I'm just trying to keep a calm and consistent approach at the plate, and do whatever I need to in order for us to keep winning games."

The Lutes will return to the field Saturday for another doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.