Conference Race Starts for Loyola Baseball Team. . . .

The men’s basketball team won’t be the only Loyola Marymount squad chasing a West Coast Conference title in the San Francisco Bay area this weekend.

The Loyola baseball team will open WCC play with a three-game series at Santa Clara starting with a 2 p.m. game today. The same teams will also play a double-header at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Lions are 4-3 overall and need to get off to a fast start in the WCC: Santa Clara and next week’s conference opponent, Pepperdine, are expected to be the Lions’ top competition in the WCC race. Santa Clara (3-3), has one of the WCC’s top returning pitchers in David Tuttle and an all-conference infielder in Ed Giovanola, who hit .378 as a junior.

The Lions haven’t hit their stride yet offensively despite a team batting average of .319, but have gotten solid pitching from starters Jon Willard (1-1) and Steve Surico (1-0). Willard, a left-hander, is coming off a 3-0 shutout of South Alabama and pitched a complete game over the weekend in losing to Arizona, 2-1. Willard has an earned run average of 2.11. Surico last week teamed with Joe Caruso in a 5-0 shutout at Arizona.

Freshman shortstop Chris Gomez leads the Lions in hitting with a .609 average, with junior outfielder Rick Mediavilla next at .485 and infielder Darrel Deak at .407. Catcher Miah Bradbury, hitting .323, leads in the power categories with two home runs and 11 runs batted in.