March 3, 2002

Final Stats

Mesa, AZ - The Loyola Marymount University (LMU) baseball team fell to Arizona State University in the third and final game of the series, 10-5, on Sunday afternoon at Hohokam Stadium.

The Lions, who fall to 5-11 on the season, attempted a late inning rally with five runs in the final three innings but fell short to the Sun Devils, who go to 11-5 in the 2002 campaign.

Arizona State set the stage early with a run in the first inning and then a breakout third inning that featured five runs on three hits against LMU starter Nicholas Lovato, who drops to 0-2 on the season.

Lovato began the third getting leadoff hitter Steve Garrabrants to pop out to first baseman Tommy Perez. However, he would hit both Nick Walsh and Rod Allen by a pitch to put two on for Jeremy West. The lead-off hitter would smack a home run to leftfield to increase the score to 4-0. The Sun Devils would get the lead to 6-0 before the inning was over on a two-out RBI single by Dennis Wyrick and then reliever Vincent Cordova would walk two batters to score the final run of the inning.

After the Sun Devils made the score 7-0 with another run in the fourth inning, the Lions were forced to play catch-up. They would finally get to ASU starter Bryce Kartler in the seventh inning with three runs on two hits. Kartler would get the win to go to 2-0 on the season.

Freshman Joseph Hendricks reached on an error and freshman Anthony Santana would walk in the seventh. Junior Joe Silva, who has had a hot bat for the Lions the past two weeks, would then double down the leftfield line to score Hendricks. Sophomore Billy Lockin, who leads the Lions with a .358 batting average, scored Silva and Santana on a double to leftfield, chasing Kartler and cutting the lead to 7-3.

Freshman Randy Waite was solid in relief, throwing two innings and allowing just one hit to get the Sun Devils out in order in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Lions would get another run in the eighth inning when freshman Joe Frazee singled and then later scored on a wild pitch.

Arizona State would put the game out of reach with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, getting four hits in the inning. Garrabrants had an RBI single, while Allen added an RBI on a ground ball and Andre Ethier had an RBI double.

The Lions would tack on a run in the ninth when Frazee singled home senior Kris Zacuto, who led the inning with a single. Frazee finished the game 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI.

LMU returns to Los Angeles to take on UCLA at Robinson Stadium on Tuesday at 3 p.m.