Alex Franco

Sports Editor

It was Senior Day at CSUSM on Saturday, April 20, where the No. 11- ranked Cougar baseball team honored its nine graduating seniors.

The team’s seniors include: Kody Sepulveda, Marcus Meraz, Steve Messner, James Dykstra, Mike Guadagnini, Kyle Secciani, Frank Charlton, Mike Scarmella and Kenny Belzer.

It was a tale of two teams as CSUSM fell to Masters College 11-4 in game one, and turned the tables and routed Master’s 10-2 in the second game.

Senior ace James Dykstra took the mound in game one and pitched well into the seventh inning before running into a jam in the top of the eighth and allowing two runs to give Master’s College the lead and ultimately the win.

A comeback effort would fall short for the Cougars in the ninth inning when Brandon Bentson belted a huge 2-run home run, his second of the year, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the bevy of runs Master’s produced, falling 11-4.

Game two of Saturday’s double-header featured an onslaught of Cougar runs and hits as the offense put up 10 runs on 15 hits. On a day to honor the seniors, it was a couple of underclassmen that really stepped up and helped the team to victory.

Junior pitcher Hunter Brown started game two and held the Master’s College bats silent for the better part of his 5.1 innings pitching, only allowing two runs while striking out five hitters. On the other side of the game, freshman Brandon Bentson was the catalyst for the Cougar offense, continuing his monstrous hitting from game one into game two as he scored the game’s first run on a two run double down the right field line finishing the game 2-4 with two runs.

Tyler Bernard and Kyle Secciani contributed with their own two run hits in what was a big fourth inning, where they put up five runs to carry the team to an impressive 10-2 win over the No. 9 Master’s putting an end to a three game losing streak and improving to 30-9 this season.   

“Facing a very good team, it’s not always going to go the way you plan,” coach Pugh said. “I was happy that we were able to get a win out of today despite the days struggles.”

The performance against Master’s puts the team at the 30 win plateau for the first time in the programs history and puts them in great position heading into the season’s final games next week and eventually the playoffs afterwards according to Pugh.

The Cougar’s wrap the regular season up at noon on April 26 at home, in a double-header against Arizona Christian before heading into the playoffs.