Point Loma Nazarene withstands a variety of tight situations, ousting Lee 8-6 en route to the title round
of the Tribune
All tournament long, Point Loma Nazarene has sailed along in an almost-carefree manner. Defensive beauties, gutsy strikeouts, must-have production at the plate — they all seemed to arrive on demand through the first four games.
Then Wednesday night came along, and it was as if the Sea Lions were trying to show they could withstand a batch of prickly situations.
If so, consider the point proven.
A trio of PLNU pitchers wriggled out of jams in each of the last four innings, and the third-seeded Sea Lions flexed some unlikely muscle with five home runs to dispatch the plucky Lee Flames 8-6. The win in front of 3,110 at Harris Field puts the San Diego club in the NAIA World Series title round.
Point Loma (45-11) can win its first-ever national championship tonight — first pitch is 7:05 — with a second win over No. 1 Lubbock Christian. The Chaps, meanwhile, can force a winner-takes-all bout on Friday night with a victory.
“We want to attack. We want to get the win (tonight),” PLNU first baseman/reliever Steven Winnick said. “It’s do-or-die. There’s no two games. That’s our mentality right there.”
The outcome of Wednesday’s tug-of-war was in doubt until Winnick coaxed a lazy fly ball to right field from Chris Dubon to end the game. Lee had brought two runs across in the bottom of the ninth on Julian Alvarez’s one-out double, but the squad from Cleveland, Tenn., stranded Junior Rodriguez at second.
He was the last of 10 Flames left on base, eight of whom reached but didn’t score in the final four innings.
The most costly squandered opportunity came in the sixth, when Lee packed the bases with no outs but failed to produce a run. Point Loma starting pitcher Chad Blauer struck out Rodriguez on the 11th pitch of an epic at-bat, then fanned Elvis Sosa and induced a pop-up to shortstop.
“That was a tough inning obviously emotionally,” Lee coach Mark Brew said. “No outs, bases loaded and they get out of it with no runs. That was probably the turning point in the game.
“We had a real great opportunity to get back into it there and we just didn’t get it done. We couldn’t get the big hit in that situation.”
The Sea Lions weren’t the typically tidy unit they have showcased in Lewiston, but they generated enough offensive juice to overcome a few shaky moments. No. 9 hitter Tim Winslow whistled two home runs out of the park — despite coming into the game with one home run all season. And reserve Ian MacMaster slammed a mammoth solo shot off the top of the right-field scoreboard to push PLNU’s lead to 7-4 in the eighth.
It was his second homer in three Series at-bats, and it was a timely answer to two Lee runs the previous half inning.
“(The ball) was jumping a little bit,” first-year Point Loma coach Joe Schaefer said. “These guys have it in them. We haven’t always played in ballparks where we’re used to getting rewarded for those type of swings. But they’ve always had it in them.”
Schaefer was particularly pleased how his club responded to less-than-ideal circumstances. The Sea Lions overcame an uncharacteristic throwing error from shortstop Tyler Kuehl, which led to two runs in the seventh inning, and a rusty relief performance from Winnick.
“We weren’t at our best today, in my opinion,” Schaefer said. “We proved we can win big, we proved we can win a close one and today we proved we can win when we’re not at our best. So I think more than anything it gave our guys confidence going into (Thursday).”
A key moment Wednesday came in the eighth, when Winnick gave up a walk and single to give Lee a bit of life. With runners on first and second and no one out, Jeff Ramirez lined a grounder to first baseman Travis McCleary, who touched the bag at first and then caught courtesy runner Max Harvell in a rundown between second and third.
McCleary dashed across the diamond and tagged Dubon to cap an odd double play and snuff out another threat.
“It’s defense, defense, defense,” Winnick said. “They came up with the plays. They make a mistake on the base paths, but Travis makes a great play at first.”
POINT LOMA LEE
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Downing rf 5 0 1 0 Bistagne ss 5 0 0 0
Miles lf 4 0 0 0 Moore 3b 3 1 1 1
Steinhauer cf 5 1 2 1 Warters 1b 5 0 2 0
McCleary 1b 5 0 0 0 Alvarez rf 4 1 2 2
Winnick p 5 0 0 0 Rodrigz dh 5 0 1 1
MacMaster 1b 1 1 1 1 Sosa lf 4 1 2 2
Kartch 3b 4 2 2 0 Dubon c 5 0 1 0
Kuehl ss 4 1 1 2 Harvell cr 0 1 0 0
Cameron 2b 4 0 1 1 Ramirez cf 4 1 1 0
Winslow c 3 2 2 3 Burstrom 2b 2 0 0 0
Collins ph 1 1 1 0
Totals 37 8 10 8 Totals 38 6 11 6
Point Loma 120 012 001—8 10 1
Lee 110 000 202—6 11 2
Point Loma ip h r er bb so
Blauer (W, 6-5) 6 6 4 2 1 9
Houser 1 1 0 0 1 1
Winnick (S, 
2 4 2 2 2 1
Lee ip h r er bb so
Gilson (L, 11-4) 5 6 6 5 0 4
Lopez 3.1 4 2 2 1 2
Frazier 0.1 0 0 0 0 0
Ibarra 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
———
Wright may be contacted at sports@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2268.
Point Loma Nazarene 8
Lee 6
> STARS OF THE GAMEThe Sea Lions’ bottom of the order shined, with the bulk of the production coming from catcher TIM WINSLOW. He cranked two home runs — after hitting just one dinger the whole season — and drove in three runs.
CHAD Blauer is PLNU’s fourth starter, but he came up big — especially in the sixth with the bases loaded and no one out.
> LOSER’s DOWNFALL
This one is easy: Lee had a truckload of chances, putting at least two men on base the last four innings. But the Flames mustered just two runs during that stretch.
> QUOTE OF NOTE
“It’s going to be awesome seeing our No. 1 guy (Andrew) Bovich out there throwing against those guys, one of the best hitting teams in the country. It should be a great game.
— BLAUER, on tonight’s title round
matchup with Lubbock Christian.
