CLAREMONT, Calif. – Opening the 2025 season with a top 10 series, no. 9/10 East Texas Baptist University didn't have the offense to break through no. 7/8 Pomona-Pitzer College's pitching falling a doubleheader, 5-3, and 16-5. ETBU is now 0-2.
Luke Finn and
Ben Lea led the team with three hits. Lea, Hunter Rumachick,
Dylan Burnaman,
Nicolas Chavez, and
Joaquin Costa all had a RBI.
Hayden Robichaux and
Jagger Neely took the losses.
Game 1
PPC 5, ETBU 3
PPC took a 5-0 lead after three innings and held onto the seven-inning win, 5-3. ETBU scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh as their rally fell short. Lea went 2-of-4 with a RBI as Burnaman also had a RBI. Neely started the game by giving up four earned runs on five hits in two innings.
Trip Barron followed for two innings with three strikeouts and no earned runs, as
Carson Speegle finished the last two innings with two strikeouts, one hit, and no runs.
PPC scored one in the second and four in the third for the 5-0 lead. Lea doubled in
Carson Livesay for the first run in the sixth inning. Lea then scored on a wild pitch to come within three, 5-2. Finn was the third run to score in the game as he came in on a fielder's choice by Burnaman in the seventh inning.
Game 2
PPC 16, ETBU 5
PPC scored 12 runs in the first five innings for a 10-run lead, 12-2. They added four more runs, one in the sixth and three in the seventh, for a 16-5 lead. Burnaman and Finn had two hits as Rumachik, Chavez, and Costa had a RBI.
Robichaux started the game by going three innings and giving up five earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts.
Matthew Irwin went one inning as
Walter Bockelmann gave up five earned runs on three hits in 0.1 innings.
Matthew Krall followed with 2.2 innings of work with two strikeouts and four earned runs on three hits.
Campbell Williams finished with one inning, recording two strikeouts.
ETBU took a 1-0 lead on a stolen base Finn going home in the second inning. PPC scored the next seven runs before Burnaman scored on an error in the fifth inning. Costa had a RBI in the sixth inning, while Rumachik and Chavez had a RBI in the seventh.
ETBU and Pomona-Pitzer will finish the series on Sunday with a nine-inning game at noon.
