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Oakland, CA -- The crowd at Laney College on Friday afternoon was treated to a pair of fantastic pitching performances in the doubleheader between the Academy of Art University and Point Loma Nazarene University, with each team getting a win in the first ever meetings between the two clubs. PLNU won the opener by a score of 3-1 behind Tyler Garkow, while the Knights came away with a 5-1 win in the capper behind a complete game from Nate Gercken.

"Our pitching has been outstanding," said head coach Brian Guinn. "Today both of our pitchers did more than just keep us in the game. They're giving us really good chances to win games, and in that second game we got some key hits to knock in some runs and get the win."

Redshirt junior Aaron Garabedian got the ball in the first game riding a streak of 15 straight innings without giving up an earned run, and extended that to 16 innings by setting the Sea Lions down in the first, allowing a walk but nothing else. In the second, Garabedian worked it to 16 2/3 innings without an earned run, but a leadoff walk came around to score on a single and PLNU went up 1-0. They added two more in the top of the fourth, when Point Loma catcher A.J. Derr had an RBI single to knock in Tyler Nordgren and Mike Marcoux. 

Meanwhile, the Sea Lions ace was working his way through the Urban Knights lineup on offense. ART U got runners on via walk and a hit by pitch, but didn't get their first hit until the fourth, when Lyle "Kalani" Brackenridge singled up the middle to get the Knights in the hit column. He would add the Urban Knights' second hit of the game, when with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, he hit a drive to left that just kept carrying for his first career home run that cut the lead to 3-1. Ryan Ramirez singled to left to follow up, but Dante Redhead grounded out to third base to end the game.

Garabedian ended up going seven innings, giving up four hits but walking five. Nick Giotta came in for two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, but the Knights were just short.


Nate Gercken twirled a gem in the second game, continuing his stellar season and rebounding well from an uncharacteristic start last time out against Fresno Pacific. He was lights out from the start, using his heavy fastball to set the Sea Lions down in order with three groundouts.

The Urban Knights got a run without a hit in the bottom of the first, starting when Stefen Henderson walked to lead off the game. He stole second, his league-leading 13th theft of the year, and moved to third on a groundout by by Brackenridge. Ryan Ramirez came up next, and with a sharp grounder to short, Henderson came in to score and the Knights had a 1-0 lead.

ART U would add two more in the third inning when Henderson again led off the inning by getting on base, this time with an infield single. Brackenridge continued his hot streak, doubling down the line to put runners on second and third. Ramirez struck out, but Dante Redhead had an RBI groundout before Myles Babitt rapped a solid single to center to make it a 3-0 game.

"Stefen has been getting on base an awful lot, so we thought we'd move him to the top of the lineup," said Guinn. "He's leading the league in stolen bases, so we wanted to get him an extra at-bat and get him on base as much as we can. Brackenridge is  also starting to get locked in, and Ramirez and Redhead have been hitting the ball hard. Five runs is enough to beat everyone with the way we've been pitching. We just have to find a way to get those runs on the board."

Those runs did keep coming against the Sea Lions, as the Knights got a single from Ramirez and a walk from Redhead to start their half of the fifth. Game two catcher James Singzon had an infield single, and freshman Jeremy Williams followed that with a single to right, scoring Redhead from third. With the bases loaded again, Cody Edmunds drew a walk from new pitched Brendan Carlile, and the Knights had a 5-0 lead.

That was more than enough for Gercken, who had allowed only one hit and two other base runners heading into the seventh inning. After getting two outs, he hit the next batter and then gave up a single. He was close to the shutout but on a tough grounder to Redhead at third, the third-baseman went for the sure play by tagging out the baserunner, which allowed a run to score.

The Knights were still satisfied with the win, matching their season-high for runs (5) to secure the victory. Gercken picked up his first career win, and lowered his ERA to 3.05 on the season.

The two teams will play again on Saturday, with the first game starting at 11:00 AM.