Loyola Battles St. Mary’s in 3-Game Series

After more than a week off for Easter break, the Loyola Marymount baseball team resumes West Coast Conference play with a three-game series against its closest pursuer, St. Mary’s.

The teams open the series today at Moraga with a 2:30 p.m. game. On Saturday, the teams will play a doubleheader at noon.

The Lions, winners of four consecutive games, are 21-13 overall and 11-6 in WCC play, two games behind front-runner Pepperdine. Third-place St. Mary’s is 16-13 and 11-7 and trails Loyola by a half-game.

“This is a huge series for us,” Lion Coach Chris Smith said.

The Lions, batting .312 as a team, are led by outfielder Mark Tillman at .429, first baseman Joe Ciccarella at .418 and third baseman Gerardo Perez at .349. The three players rank among the top eight hitters in the conference. The Gaels also have two top batters in Chris Koeper at .398 and Craig Billeci at .374.

In the power categories, St. Mary’s outfielder James Mouton leads the WCC with nine home runs, followed by Ciccarella with seven and Perez, Billeci and Loyola’s Joe Testa with six apiece.

Perez leads the WCC with 37 runs batted in. Ciccarella is third with 31 and Testa fourth with 29.

Right-hander Chad Dembisky, named the WCC pitcher of the week for the second time this season after a dominating performance against Hartford, leads the Lion staff with a 7-3 record, 2.44 earned-run average and 57 strikeouts in 62 innings. Loyola reliever Joe Caruso leads the conference with nine saves.

In other WCC series this weekend, Pepperdine is at San Diego and Nevada visits San Francisco.