Oakland, Calif. – The Central Washington University baseball team traveled to California in an attempt to get their first games in after being rained out for the first four scheduled games. Today, the Wildcats (0-2) dropped both ends of the twin bill to Academy of Art (3-0) by scores of 6-5 and 2-1.
 
The Wildcat offense was jumpstarted by senior Robert Ball who collected the first hit for Central on the year. Newcomer Trevor Tripoli followed by collecting his first hit of his young college career. Nothing came of the inning though as the Wildcats could not scrape across a run.
 
The Urban Knights got on the board first with a three-run inning in the fourth. Central didn't wait long to respond. In the top of the sixth, Tripoli collected his second hit of the game which was followed by a sac bunt by Justin Hampson. Both runners moved up on a throwing error on the play. Mitchell Lesmeister, Yi-an Pan, and Jaden Hassell all had RBI singles following the error. Luke Smith later doubled in the inning to score Pan before the inning ended.
 
Lesmeister snagged his second RBI of the game with a single up the middle that scored Cameron McGrath, who walked earlier in the inning. At the end of the top of the seventh inning the Wildcats were leading 5-3. AAU came back the bottom half of the inning and scored three runs of their own to take a one run lead by score of six to five to take game one of the doubleheader.
 
AJ Wood (0-1) was given the loss after coming in the bottom of the fourth inning with one out. He threw four and one-third innings, had seven strikeouts, two walks, and gave up just three earned runs on three hits. Tyler Hoefer started the game and went three and two third innings and gave up three runs on three hits as well. He punched out 6 of the 16 batters faced.
 
Game two was started by senior right hander Connor Stevenson who was looking to turn things around for the Wildcats. Stevenson did just that by going five and one third innings, facing 22 batters, and giving up six hits. He did not allow a single run on 78 pitches, 51 of which were strikes.
 
Yi-an Pan started the fourth inning off with a double to center field, followed by a sacrifice bunt from Hassell allowing Pan to move up to third base. Jon Pinto followed that with a hard ground ball up the middle which scored Pan from third.
 
JJ Asinas came in for relief in the bottom of the sixth inning with two runners on and one out. Asinas came up big, striking out the first hitter that he saw looking, and followed by getting the next AAU hitter to ground into a fielder's choice to end the inning hold onto a one run lead.
 
The game stayed quiet until the bottom half of the eighth inning when Daniel Curiel tripled to start off the inning and later scored when Elijah Smith doubled down the right field line to tie the game at one.
 
Colton Bunt came in to pinch hit in the bottom half of the ninth inning and reached base after a fielding error from the AAU shortstop. Pinto put down a sacrifice bunt in order to move the runner to second. However, the Wildcats couldn't do anything more in the inning.
 
The Urban Knights were able to string together a couple walks and sacrifice bunts in order to take the win by score of 2-1 in the bottom half of the ninth inning.
 
Aaron Foust was handed the loss after two walks and one unearned run was score. Asinas went two and two thirds giving up two hits, one run, and struck out four of the ten batters that he faced.
 
Following the games, Head Coach Desi Storey said it came down to execution. "We just didn't execute today. We played well and put ourselves in a good place to win but we just didn't execute today. Both games were close ones today and in those types of games it comes down to the little things. Getting a bunt down, playing catch, and having the right signs. Both Hoefer and Stevenson got us deep into the game which is what we expect out of those two."
 
When asked about the play of the young guys Storey said, "Trip (Tripoli) hit the ball really well all day and Luke had a clutch double in the first game to give us another run on the board."
 
Senior James Brooks takes the mound tomorrow in the third and final game of the road trip. Coach Storey says that the Wildcats need to come out with a better mentality tomorrow and need to not let up with a lead but instead continue to capitalize and expand on that lead.  
 
First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.