Loyola Beats Reno; 13-Inning Nightcap Is an April Fool Tie

It may seem like an April Fools’ Day joke, but Loyola Marymount’s baseball team will finish a game in April that it started in March.

After cruising to a 14-3 victory over Nevada-Reno in the opener of Saturday’s West Coast Conference double-header, Loyola couldn’t win the second game outright before darkness fell over Page Stadium--not even after 13 innings and more than four hours of baseball.

The game was suspended in a 5-5 tie shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday. It will be resumed in the top of the 14th inning today, to be followed by the previously scheduled makeup of a game that was snowed out at Reno in February.

The Lions won the first game of the four-game series Friday, 17-4, so the win in Saturday’s opener makes Loyola 2-0 against Reno.

The 16th-ranked Lions (25-9 overall, 12-4 in the WCC) failed to pick up a third victory also despite some magnificent individual performances:

* Tony Kounas smashed three home runs on the afternoon, including two in the nightcap.

Kounas’ third home run of the day--his 11th of the year--might still be on an upward arc today if it hadn’t hit halfway up the trunk of a 75-foot eucalyptus behind the left-field wall.

* Chris Gomez, Loyola’s freshman shortstop, drove in three of the Lions’ runs in the second game.His two-run homer to left with one out in the ninth tied the game at 5-5.

But it was Gomez’s error that had opened the door for Nevada-Reno in the seventh, allowing the Wolfpack to take a 5-3 lead.

* Loyola center fielder Rich Mediavilla went 6 for 11 in the two games, and took away an extra-base hit with an over-the-shoulder catch in the ninth.

But with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th, the fleet-footed Mediavilla hit the ball so hard to short that even he couldn’t avoid being doubled up to end the inning.

* And All-American Miah Bradbury, after squatting for 18 innings at catcher Saturday, was called upon to pitch in the twilight of the second game. He retired all six batters he faced.

But even Loyola’s senior leader had his Achilles’ heel. With Kevin Van de Brake representing Loyola’s winning run at third in the 13th, Bradbury swung and missed at a curve ball for strike three and the end of the game--at least as far as Saturday was concerned.

“It bothers me because we had some good opportunities to win,” Loyola Coach Chris Smith said.

Smith is certain of one thing: The first and second games of the series were a lot easier. The Lions had two grand slams in Friday’s slugfest--by Williams and Gomez--and pounded out 16 hits in Saturday’s opener.

In Saturday’s first game, Loyola took a 5-1 lead in the fourth on third baseman Bobby Hughes’ fifth homer of the season. But Nevada-Reno (13-14, 3-8) cut the lead to 5-3 in the fifth.

The Lions exploded for seven hits in the bottom of the fifth, including six consecutive singles, to break the game open. Kounas capped the scoring for Loyola with his ninth homer of the year, a solo shot to left in the sixth.

Right-hander Darryl Scott (6-2) picked up the win for Loyola in Saturday’s opener, with relief help from lefty Chris Spears. Jon Willard (7-2) was the winner Friday.