ORANGE, Calif. — Alexander Rivas had his longest outing of the year, tossing 7.0 innings of five-hit ball, and California Lutheran University baseball defeated La Verne 7-5 to advance to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship on Saturday afternoon. 

The Kingsmen defeated Chapman on Friday, and now La Verne, to advance to Sunday, undefeated in the tournament. Cal Lutheran can win the SCIAC Postseason Tournament Championship with one win on Sunday. The game will start at 11 a.m. 

Rivas allowed zero earned runs and overpowered the Leopard hitters. He struck out three batters, giving up just five hits and one run. 

Clay Rickerman pitched the eighth and Matt Campo and Will Watson came in for the ninth. Rickerman gave up one hit and one earned run. Campo fell into some trouble and was ousted after .2 innings. He gave three hits and three runs as La Verne made the game close. Watson relieved Campo and came in for the save. Watson got the final batter to ground out.

Brendan Durfee led the way for the offense. He drove in 3 RBI, Austin Carrillo was next with two and Max Heverly and Sean Blandino each had one. 

The Purple and Gold led from start to finish as Heverly led off with a solo home run. La Verne got their first run in the third, off an error, and tied the game. 

The Kingsmen opened their lead with runs in the fifth and sixth.  Blandino hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Durfee hit a 2-RBI home run in the sixth. 

Cal Lutheran added on extra, much-needed runs in the eighth and ninth. Durfee doubled in the eighth as Zach Bullard scored. Carrillo delivered another clutch hit in the ninth and tallied a 2-RBI single. 

It was runs the Kingsmen needed as La Verne scored one in the eighth and three in the ninth. With Cal Lutheran up 7-5, Watson finished off the Leopards as the Kingsmen continued their run at a SCIAC Championship. 

Box Score: CLU 7, ULV 5
CLU Instagram: @clusports
Sport IG: @kingsmen_baseball
CLU Twitter: @CLUSports
Sport Twitter: @CLUBaseball
CLU Facebook: @clusports
Hashtags: #clusports #ownthethrone #goregals #gokingsmen #theSCIAC #ncaad3

Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director