OAKLAND, Calif. – The start of Academy of Art baseball's two days hosting Biola couldn't help but gave fans a bit of déjà vu from the previous week in which senior right-hander Collin Carriger tossed a complete nine innings with double-digit strikeouts before sophomore outfielder Liam Rizzo delivered a clutch hit in the bottom of the ninth for the 3-2 walk-off win. The Eagles would come back with nine runs of offense in the first two frames of game two for a 15-4 victory and a split to begin the Pacific West Conference series.

Walking off winners for the third time in the last two weeks, game one's result for the Urban Knights (6-11, 2-4 PacWest) was also their first consecutive victory to start a PacWest series while the Eagles (6-8, 3-3 PacWest) used a grand slam from Bobby Brown in the first inning of the second contest to gain an early advantage.

GAME ONE – ART U 3, BU 2
Wasting no time, the bases were loaded with Urban Knights three batters into the bottom of the first inning and Rizzo provided a sacrifice fly then, in the third, senior first baseman Vincent Lontz was hit with the bases juiced to build a 2-0 lead.

Coming off the best start of his career in which he broke the program record with 16 strikeouts against No. 23 Concordia and earned both PacWest and NCBWA West Region Pitcher of the Week honors for the second time in his career, Carriger sat down the first two batters he faced on strikes and proceeded to throw a perfect game through his first four trips to the mound. The Communications & Media Technologies major surrendered a walk to break up the bid in the fifth and, despite his sixth strikeout, a double and a single allowed Biola to tie the contest at 2-2.

The BU rally ended up being an anomaly as Carriger benefitted from a double play around the diamond to end the sixth, struck out two more in the seventh, and added his 10th punchout en route to his 112th pitch to complete the ninth. ART U's bottom half of that frame began with a single from redshirt senior middle infielder Dominic Ruggiero before he was sacrificed to second for Rizzo. Working the count to a pitch he liked, the Knights cleanup hitter sent a 3-2 pitch up the middle and was soon celebrating the 3-2 walk-off victory with his teammates at first base.

GAME TWO – BU 15, ART U 4
Two walks and a single set the table for Biola to hit a grand slam in the top of the first inning of game two, but the contest was just a two-run affair moving to the second. For Academy of Art in the bottom of the first, singles by Ruggiero and graduate student outfielder Travis Turney gave way to a double steal then Rizzo once again plated his teammate on a single to right center.

The 4-2 ballgame swung further in the Eagles' direction in the second, however, as four hits and an error resulted in five more runs. Battling back against the deficit, senior right-hander Cannon Secrist struck out the side in the third ahead of his team rallying on a pair of doubles from junior outfielder Charles Morgan and Turney, the latter of whom extended his hitting streak to 14 games on Friday.

After exchanging scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth, the Knights brought in another run on a sacrifice fly from Lontz in the sixth, but BU responded with three more in the seventh and the ninth to secure the 15-4 win and the doubleheader split.

Four different Knights had multi-hit games on the day including junior middle infielder Adam Inouye's 2-for-3 and Ruggiero's 2-for-4 series opener then Turney and Rizzo each went 2-for-4 with a double and one run batted in during game two. Turney added two stolen bases to further his team lead with nine thus far.

The PacWest series between ART U and Biola wraps up with another 11 a.m. doubleheader at Laney College.