Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

Oakland, CA -- Just as Friday's doubleheader between the Academy of Art University and Point Loma Nazarene University featured two almost mirror images of each other in terms of pitching performance, Saturday's was the same, with the Urban Knights and Sea Lions splitting the day and the series in similar fashion. ART U struck for three runs in the first inning of the first game and held on for a 3-1 victory, while PLNU got four in the opening frame of the second game and added on to win 9-0 in the finale.

"Our pitching has been getting the job done out there, and we're starting to string some hits together," said head coach Brian Guinn. "Boyett stayed around the strike zone in the first game and got some key ground balls when he needed them. Our offense got us ahead in the first game, and it means a lot to get those runs on the board."

Freshman Nick Boyett took the hill for the Urban Knights in the opening game and worked around a one-out double by Mike Marcoux to get out of it. In the home half of the inning, the Knights came out swinging. After Stefen Henderson struck out to lead off, ART U rapped out four straight hits. Lyle "Kalani" Brackenridge hit an infield single, Ryan Ramirez singled to left, and then Dante Redhead doubled to right-center to put the Knights up 1-0. Myles Babitt hit an infield single to drive in the second run, and then Kevin Decker hit into a fielder's choice to score Redhead from third, and the Knights had a 3-0 lead.

That was all the Urban Knights would get, and that was all Boyett would need, as the freshman shut the Sea Lions offense down for six innings. Point Loma got a double in the second but didn't get him around. They had a single in the third but Boyett rolled up a nifty double play, as Ramirez turned around a sharp grounder for a 3-6-3 twin-killing. The Sea Lions would add two more hits in the fourth, and two more base runners in the fifth, but each time Boyett was able to get out of it unscathed.

Point Loma did scratch one across in the sixth, using back to back singles to set up a sacrifice bunt. Kyle Desimone came up and after Boyett got ahead of him, he lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to make it a 3-1 game. Yet again, after that, the Knights settled in. Yoshi Uemura came out of the bullpen in the seventh earned his first hold of the year, allowing a hit and a walk over an inning and a third. Then it was Ryan Donahoe's turn, as he struck out back-to-back batters to end the eighth and got one more strikeout in the ninth to nail down his first save of the year.

The Knights got a lot of production from the top of the lineup, as all of their seven hits came from the first five batters in the order. Brackenridge and Ramirez each had two hits. Bryan Burkhead and Trey Hunt each went 2-for-3 for the Sea Lions.



It was the Sea Lions turn to strike early in the second game, as freshman Kai Fink got the start for Academy of Art. He gave up a leadoff double, and then got two outs in a row, and came within a strike of getting out of the inning, but ended up walking Burkhead to put two runners on. Trey Hunt hit a single, and then Joseph Keller hit a three-run homer to left to make it a 4-0 lead before the Knights came up to bat.

Point Loma added two more in the third off of Fink, and then two more in the fourth off of redshirt sophomore Samm McAlear. The Knights however, were held without a hit until the fourth inning, when Brackenridge had an infield single. He went to second when Ramirez was hit by a pitch, but was caught stealing third. Redhead reached on an error, but then Myles Babitt grounded into a double play to end the inning.

ART U gave up an unearned run in the sixth inning to make it 9-0,  when Keller scored on a passed ball. Meanwhile, the Knights were stymied by Mickey Dunleavy, who went five innings and gave up a pair of hits and two walks. Garret Levsen came in and threw a scoreless sixth and seventh inning as well, and the Knights were left with a split on the day and for the series.

The Knights will head to Hawaii next week, taking on UH Hilo (April 12-13) and Hawaii Pacific (April 16-17) before closing the year with eleven straight at home.