They stood and traded blows like the baseball players they are, each daring the other to fall or back down or throw a hanging curve. Pomona-Pitzer snarled, then Cal Lu snarled back, I snarled but no one heard me so I screamed and then ran. It was all getting very tense.

The two best teams in SCIAC came out swinging during a three-game series last weekend. The California Lutheran Kingsmen connected first, taking the first game 8-3. Staked to a 3-0 lead, usually reliable Matt Rager ’02 struggled, backed up by a flawed defense and sullenly backed down by an advancing Cal Lu offense. From the third inning until the seventh inning, Cal Lu amassed eight runs. But of the eight runs they scored, only five were earned, the rest a product of four Sagehen errors.

The Sagehen offense was as sterile as a ten-year-old boy, scattering five hits over nine innings. All three runs came from a solo home run by Rob Ruiz PI ’03 and a two-run shot by Spike Einsiedler ’02, but there was no real rhythm to the offense as Cal Lu pitchers had their way.

The Sagehens returned home for games two and three and after a Saturday rainout, play continued on Sunday morning. In game two, backed into the ropes from the defeat in game one, it all came together like the Beatles, pitching, hitting, and defense. The Sagehens thoroughly pecked over the Kingsmen, winning by a score of 22-2. After scoring two runs in the first, the Sagehens never looked back and scored in every inning but the eighth. "As an offensive we do not feel overpowered by anyone, so we were not surprised to be up 17-0," said Luke Smude ’02.

Two runs here, seven runs there… and after the dust settled, it all amounted to 22 runs, the eighth time this season the Sagehen offense scored at least 15 runs.

Adam Gardner ’04 finished with a complete game, allowing only six hits and two earned runs with seven strikeouts, improving to 4-2 for the season and 3.93 ERA.

Jose Cortez PI ’03 starred again with five hits and six RBIs with two home runs. Alex Siele ’02 added four hits in five at-bats, leading the team with four runs scored.

The Kingsmen sent five pitchers in to stop a surging Pomona offense, each one shot down and laughed at, mostly by me. Only one pitcher managed to last two innings in a game that saw five home runs, four of them by the Sagehens.

The Cal Lu defense also stumbled, giving up a shameful six errors that translated into seven unearned runs for the Sagehens.

Squared off at one game apiece, it became somewhat obvious that pitching would once again be the deciding factor between these two teams. Sagehen ace Einsiedler took the mound, improving to his team-leading 5-1 record and second -owest ERA of 2.77. Einsiedler allowed three earned runs in six innings and Mike Renery ’03 provided three solid innings of relief, allowing no runs and striking out two. Cal Lu pitchers, on the other hand, were wild, allowing five walks, four in the first five innings by the starting pitcher. The shaky Kingsmen defense was of no help either, allowing two crippling errors, which allowed three earned runs.

Pomona quickly jumped out to a 2-1 lead after the first inning and tacked on three more runs in the third. Smude and Cortez provided most of the offense, as Smude went 2 for 4 with an RBI and slugger Cortez hit a two run shot, his seventh home run in the past six games. That proved to be all the run support Einsiedler needed.

By taking both games of the doubleheader, Pomona-Pitzer has pulled even with Cal Lu in the SCIAC standings, boasting an 11-3 record compared to Cal Lu’s 10-2 mark. The race for the SCIAC title is vital because the winner receives an automatic playoff bid.

However, backed by a potent offense that actually dropped its team batting average to .351, hopes are almost as high as expectations heading into the final games of the season.