Loyola Streak at 9 With Win Over Berkeley

The baseball teams from UC Berkeley and Loyola Marymount are similar in style and close in the national rankings, but after two games of a three-game series at Loyola, things are going all the Lions’ way.

In fact, things have gone their way for the better part of the last two weeks.

Saturday’s 13-10 nonconference victory over Berkeley was the Lions’ ninth straight and ran their record to 28-7. Loyola has scored 47 runs in their last three games, including 13 in each of the two games against Berkeley.

Saturday’s game was less clear-cut than Friday’s 13-5 win, with the outcome in doubt until reliever Darryl Scott coaxed two straight groundouts with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Berkeley ( 23-10) came into the series ranked fourth, with Loyola rated eighth.

Going into today’s 1 p.m. game at Loyola, the Lions are making a good case for moving up.

“This is an interesting series, because the two teams are somewhat mirror images,” Loyola Coach Dave Snow said. “Both teams are offense-minded and aggressive.”

The Lions scored in six of their eight innings and got three runs batted in from center fielder Brian Turang. Second baseman Carl Fraticelli, designated hitter Miah Bradbury and shortstop Bobby DeJardin added two RBI each. DeJardin went 4 for 4 with two doubles, and only one batter of the 11 who hit for Loyola went hitless.

Cal catcher Derek Stark, a sophomore out of Crespi High, made it interesting for the Bears, hitting a towering three-run home run just inside the foul pole in the seventh inning, and nailing a long two-run blast high into the trees beyond the wall in left-center in the ninth.

The Bears’ other big guns were leadoff man Todd Mayo and second batter Darryl Vice, each going 3 for 6.

In the stifling heat, Cal’s starter Scott Morehouse (1-1) failed to get an out in the second inning, and Loyola starter Scott Neill couldn’t get an out in the fourth. But Snow credited good hitting on both sides rather than the temperature for the pitchers’ problems.

Both teams scored twice in the first inning, Cal using Mayo’s leadoff double, Vice’s RBI single and a sacrifice fly to score twice after only three batters.

Loyola struck back quickly, bunching a walk and three straight singles to tie it.

The Bears scored two more in the second on Mayo’s two-run double, but Loyola responded with four. After the Lions loaded the bases on walks, Turang knocked home two with a single.

Cal replaced Morehouse with left-hander Willy Warrecker, so Snow inserted the right-handed Bradbury, who lashed a double down the left-field line to score two more.

The Lions added three more in the third, including an RBI double by DeJardin, for a 9-4 lead, but when Neill walked the first batter in the fourth, Snow brought in Terry Seward.

The left-hander got a groundout, then gave up a hit and a walk, but got out of trouble by picking a runner off first and another off second to end the inning.

Seward pitched two innings to earn the victory and raise his record to 5-0.

Loyola added a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth before the Bears began to come back.

Brian Clancy, owner of the Lions’ lowest earned run average (1.62), came on in the sixth for Loyola but struggled in the seventh, giving up an opening walk and two hits including Stark’s first home run.

So Snow went to his bullpen ace, Scott, in the eighth. Scott, who recorded his ninth save, had an uneventful eighth but a tumultuous ninth.

With one out, Scott issued a walk, then Stark’s second home run. Three walks followed, but Scott got both Mayo and Vice to ground to first and end the suspense.

“We’re hot,” Snow said. “We had four or five hit-and-runs, and every time we did it, we found a hole. I was really pleased the way we executed. DeJardin was very productive. He could be hitting first or second in any other lineup.”

Both teams are scheduled to throw their aces today: Loyola’s Steve Surico (7-0) vs. Cal’s Mark Juhas (5-0). But a pitchers duel is not necessarily ordained.

“With these teams, you never know,” Snow said.