It was a Chamber of Commerce type of day in Carson for the Point Luna-Cal State Dominguez Hills game today. (Well, please ignore the bare spots in the grass)

I’ve got a ton of friends who live in Boston and New York. And this morning I was inundated by visuals on Facebook of snow drifts the size of space shuttles. So to honor them, I felt obligated to venture out and see a college baseball game out here in SoCal. It’s the least I could do for my buds. So I hopped on my bike and rode down to Carson and went to check out a game between Point Loma Nazarene (of San Diego) and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

It was a sun-washed Saturday afternoon with temperatures in the upper 50s, though it felt much warmer than that. What’s not to like, right?

A friend of mine snapped this picture outside of her house in Boston. Hopefully all this melts by Friday for opening day.

Besides that, I used today’s game to get back into the swing of things. Get the camera out, make sure I remember how to use it, get back into the practice keeping score. Basically, I used today in the same way the New Orleans Bowl is used to as a dry run for the Sugar Bowl, making sure the lighting is right, the camera angles are sound and the stadium security is running smoothly.

So how did everything turn out? Here’s the rundown. Please excuse any typos or run-on sentences, I’m a little bit rusty with this college baseball thing.

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WHAT I SAW AT TORO FIELD:

In game one of a scheduled double-header, Point Loma Narzarene used a 3-run 7th inning and a very solid 7.0 inning pitching performance from Tyler Garkow to subdue Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Point Loma's Tyler Garkow pitched well enough to keep his team in the game until the offense came around to score three runs in the 7th inning.

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LINESCORE:

PLNU- 000 001 310 – 5  9  3

CSDH- 001 100 010 – 3 11  3

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TOP HITTERS.

PLNU:

- Zach Allen, 1-for-4, 2B, 3RBI

- Mark Marcoux, 2-for-4

- Joseph Keller, 2-for-4, HR, RBI

CSUDH:

- Chris Allen, 2-for-5

- Kevin Logan, 2-for-3

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PITCHING:

WP: Taylor Garkow, 1-0

LP: David Haerle, 0-1

Save: Sebastian Santos, 1

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RECORDS:

PLNU, 1-3

CSUDH, 2-2.

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IN SUMMARY.

Both teams are coming off of pretty crappy seasons. The Toros went 14-34 last season, after hosting an NCAA D2 Regional in 2011, and the Sea Lions were 18-31 a year ago but have gone to the NAIA College World Series as recently as 2010. So yes, these proud programs need to become relevant again.

Dominguez Hills jumped out to a 2-0 lead after single runs in the 3rd and 4th innings. Toros starting pitcher Sean Wardour was pretty damn good, going six innings, giving up just five hits and a single run, which was helped out by a two-base throwing error. Wardour displayed pretty good control and had things in hand fairly well, again if not for a big error, he would’ve had a shutout going.

But then came the 7th inning. David Haerle came in a struggled mightily. He gave up an inning-starting single to Joseph Keller, suffered a throwing error on catcher Alex Sixtos on a sac bunt, loaded the bases with a plunking, gave up an RBI sac fly to A.J. Derr and then gave up the big blow: a two-run double by Zach Allen. A walk to the next batter sent Haerle to the showers.

An inning later, Keller gave the Sea Lions an insurance run with a 370-foot yard call over the left field fence. The two teams swapped single runs in the 8th inning, but Dominguez Hills just couldn’t get any closer. The Toros did get two men on base in the 9th with just one out, but Chris Allen struck out swinging and David Steininger grounded out to 3rd to end the game.

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NOTES:

- Game Two.

The Toros and the Sea Lions played two games today with the CSUDH getting revenge with a 9-6 win. But the pisser of this game was that PL pulled within 9-8 with two runs in the 7th inning, but as soon as the two runs crossed the plate to pull the Sea Lions within a run, the umpires powwowed and decided that it was getting too dark to continue the game (yep, there are no lights at Toro Field). So the game officially reverted to the end of the 6th inning, which gave Dominguez Hills a 9-6 victory.

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- It *never* rains in Southern California.

Although these two teams were already planning to make today a double-header, these two teams were s’posed to hook up on Friday afternoon down at Point Loma, but the game was cancelled due to a steady rain that washed out the day. Too bad, since originally I was planning to make the drive down to the cliffside campus to see the game at beautiful Carroll Land Stadium, which literally overlooks the Pacific Ocean. As it’s been described before, Land Stadium is “the most scenic ballpark in America.”

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- Transfer U.

CSUDH had a handful of well-known D1 transfers on their roster. The best known was Ivory Thomas, who played three seasons at Cal State Fullerton and was a former 42nd-round draft pick out of high school. First baseman Chris Allen is a former Cal State Northridge Matador, who made 40 starts in his two years in the valley known as the Porn Capital of the World. Also, cleanup hitter Tony McClendon is a former Liberty Flame, who transferred into Dominguez Hills for his junior year. Lastly, for a couple of innings, I sat next to the girlfriend of Toros pitcher Dimitri De La Fuente, who is a former pitcher for Cal State Fullerton last season. She told me that De La Fuente and Thomas both transferred to CSUDH because the Fullerton coaches told them they could stay and be part-timers, but in their senior years, to increase their pro stock, they might want to transfer someplace they would get more playing time. So it was interesting to hear that there was no animosity behind their transferring but rather the Titan coaches just gave them open, honest advice.

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- Allen on fire.

Speaking of Chris Allen, the Northridge transfer had the biggest day of all the Toros, going 2-for-5 in game one and 4-for-4 in game two, including a pair of RBI. No. 2 hitter Carlos Avila also had a big day, going 1-for-4 with an RBI in game one and then went 2-for-4 with 3RBI and a triple in game two. Point Loma leadoff man Mark Marcoux was the bellcow for the Lions, going 2-for-4 in game one and 3-for-4 in game two. He also scored three runs on the day.

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- Worst nickname in college baseball?

Point Loma 3rd baseman Joseph Keller is called “Helen” by his Sea Lion teammates. Hey, at least they have some knowledge of historical figures. Heard any worse nicknames than that? Slap me back.

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PICS.

A few of the images from today’s game, just to make sure I remembered how to use my camera before next week’s D1 opener.

This is my attempt at taking an artsy-fartsy picture of the Dominguez Hills dugout as it sits empty.

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1st baseman Chris Allen and 2nd baseman Ivory Thomas were former Big West talents who made their way to Cal State Dominguez Hills this season.

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If you can't get your bat working, use your head. Ivory Thomas appears to head butt the ball into play.

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Point Loma catcher A.J. Derr shows off his rocket arm in gunning down a Toros sac bunt attempt.

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Lion outfielder Kyle Desimone slides into home giving Point Loma the lead for good in the 7th inning.

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CSUDH head coach Murphy Su'a told 1st base umpire Mike Lusky, "Since you and I both agree you made the wrong call, then if you don't change your call I'm going to put this game under protest." Eventually, the three umpires got together to reverse the call in favor of coach Su'a.

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... then again, Point Loma head coach Joe Schaeffer wasn't all that crash-hot over home plate umpire Craig Compton's calls either.

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Although Dominguez Hills left fielder Jordan Yellan shows his considerable leaping ability, he couldn't come close to Joseph Keller's towering home run.

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Joseph Keller gets the heroes welcome back at the dugout after his 8th inning home run.

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Leadoff man Ivory Thomas, so impressive he can make his Easton bat levitate in mid-air. (Sorry, that was a weak attempt at humor)

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Point Loma 2nd baseman Zach Allen had a great day at the dish and also made plays from his canasta in the field too.

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Okay guys, more coming your way as the first pitch for Division One approaches.

G’night.