{"id":83875,"date":"2024-04-27T19:59:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T02:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=83875"},"modified":"2024-04-27T20:32:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T03:32:23","slug":"cougars-split-two-with-fresno-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=83875","title":{"rendered":"Cougars Split Two with Fresno Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Spencer Rasmusen, who singled in the first inning, takes a big cut for the Cougars. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Peterson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Azusa) – Azusa Pacific fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and could never recover in a 7-1 loss to Fresno Pacific in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday at the Cougar Baseball Complex. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Jaylen Rodriguez went the distance for Fresno Pacific allowing only one run and seven hits while striking out seven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fresno Pacific’s Tommy Rover was thrown out at the plate. APU catcher Keegan Rodin made the catch and tag. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Sunbirds got Rodriguez all the runs he needed with the first three batters of the game. Trent Mallonee led off the game against Azusa Pacific starter Cameron Kessel with a single to left field. Gabe Henderson followed with a line single to center and Andrew Valdez came up and promptly drilled a shot over the left field barrier in left and just like that it was 3-0 Sunbirds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars came a few feet short of taking the lead in the bottom of the first inning when they loaded the bases on a walk to George Christison and singles by Cade Marshman and Spencer Rasmussen. The next hitter Omar Lopez followed and turned on one but his bid for a grand slam home run hooked just foul down the left field line. Lopez then banged into a double play and APU left the bases loaded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresno Pacific added another run in the second when Shane Pursell singled, worked his way to third and scored on a base hit by Mallonee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cameron Kessel started and worked three innings for the Cougars. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Sunbirds made it 5-0 in the third when Donte Valdez singled, moved to second on a base knock by Tommy Rover and scored on a single by Chris Clement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars offered a murmur of protest in the fourth inning when Tyler Durbin unloaded a bomb to left field but it turned out to be APU’s only run of the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresno Pacific added two more runs in the fifth on four hits including run-scoring singles by Clement and Pursell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Azusa Pacific used five pitchers in the contest. Kessel went three innings and allowed five runs and nine hits. Meanwhile Fresno Pacific’s Rodriguez improved to 7-0 on the season with the victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars, who won the first game 12-2, finished the regular season 21-27 overall and 16-15 in the PacWest Conference. They now will play in the PacWest Championships Tournament which begins May 8 at APU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresno Pacific finished 21-25, 12-20 in the PacWest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Azusa) – Azusa Pacific fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and could never recover in a 7-1 loss to Fresno Pacific in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday at the Cougar Baseball Complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[871],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83875"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83890,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83875\/revisions\/83890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}