By Alex Franco

Sports Editor

The offensive struggles appear to be over now for the CSUSM baseball team as they trounced the visiting Ashford Saints Monday, March 4 in San Marcos.

The cougars scored a combined 22 runs in the double header, in what Head Coach Pugh called their best performance of the season by far.

“We really swung the bats better today than we have all season, I knew we better than what we were showing.” Pugh Said. “Hitting is one of those things that’s just contagious, one guy gets hitting and they all start.”

And that it was, as the hit totals hit double digits in both games and the runs followed suit. CSUSM won the first game with a score of 8-0, as star pitcher James Dykstra pitched another dominating lights out game, surrendering only three hits to Ashford hitters and striking out 11 in a complete game shutout.

“Pitching was great, James Dykstra was outstanding especially after coming back from being sick for a week,” Pugh said.  

The Cougar offense helped take the pressure off Dykstra throughout the game striking first in the third inning off a Kenny Belzer single to left that scored Kyle Secciani. Belzer would finish the game 3-5 with a pair of RBI’s. Fellow teammates Brandon Bentson and Tyler Bernard contributed another three RBI’s going 2-5 and 1-3, respectively.

 Catcher Kody Sepulveda helped the cause by adding a solo homerun to straight away centerfield in the sixth inning.Game two of the double header saw more of the same out of the Cougars with some added production on the offensive side.

CSUSM struck early and often, with score six runs in the game’s first three innings on its way to a dominating 14-2 rout of Ashford.Bentson and Sepulveda once again jump started the offense, picking up where they left off the last game with first inning RBI’s to put them 2-0.

Pitcher Steve Messner would hold the Saints offense to one run in his five innings of work, allowing 3 hits and striking out 7 to secure his second win of the season.CSUSM’s own Killer B’s, Bentson, Belzer, and Bernard finished the double-header an astounding 9-20 from the plate with a combined 8 RBI’s.The Cougars now stand at 11-1 on the season going into the March 7 rematch against Ashford, once again at home.