AZUSA, Calif. – Over the course of two innings, Academy of Art baseball scored all seven of its runs while attempting to build a comeback effort against Azusa Pacific, but APU was able to defend their home field on their Senior Day and completed a Pacific West Conference series sweep with a 10-7 victory on Saturday. 

The Urban Knights (14-28, 7-21 PacWest) put runners on base in each of the first two innings while the Cougars (31-17, 22-10 PacWest) had a runner just 90 feet from home plate in the first, but both sides were kept off the board. During the third, Azusa Pacific worked around a one-out ART U single to quickly retire the side, then began their offense with a two-spot in the home half of the inning. A single and walk put two on before a strikeout, where APU capitalized with a single into center to score a run, then added another later in the frame after a wild pitch and groundout. 

Trying to answer, ART U had a pair on to begin the fourth after a walk to graduate student Travis Turney followed by an error during the at-bat of graduate student outfielder Landon Levine. Even with Turney then swiping third base for his 18th steal of the year, tying him for sixth-most in an ART U season, Azusa Pacific was able to get the next three hitters in order to escape without a run allowed. 

A leadoff walk to sophomore second baseman Larry Fonseca in the ART U fifth was immediately erased on a double play, and after the defense, APU went back to work with the bats and tacked on two more to the lead. Immediately there were a pair of runners in scoring position thanks to a single and double, with one of those runners scoring two batters later on an RBI single before the other followed on a wild pitch. 

Academy of Art put up their first response in the away half of the sixth, with a solo blast from Levine over the left field fence proving to be the wake-up call for the ART U offense. Continuing the two-out rally, singles from redshirt sophomore first baseman Patrick Morgan and sophomore third baseman Chris Fung put runners at the corners before a walk loaded the bases, where Fonseca lined a ball into the left-center gap for a two-run single.

Now in a one-run ball game, Azusa Pacific broke the contest open thanks to a five-run bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with no outs after a hit by pitch and pair of singles, then scoring in a variety of ways including a pair of wild pitches, an error on a fielder's choice, and a sacrifice fly. In total, the five runs were scored on just two hits, and aided by the error. 

Showing their mettle, Academy of Art nearly matched the Cougars with their turn at the dish in the top of the seventh, generating four runs on a trio of hits that brought the game's score to 9-7. Senior outfielder Hayato Niki's leadoff triple did the heavy lifting, putting himself in scoring position which allowed Henderson's single into left center to drive him in for the RBI. A four-pitch walk to Turney preceded a Levine double into right center that scored Henderson, while both Turney and Levine later came home on a pair of sacrifice flies from Fung and sophomore shortstop Emil Jellinek. 

Unfortunately, that marked the end of the ART U scoring as they managed just one base runner in each of the final two frames while APU added a final insurance tally with an unearned run on a double in the eighth. Coming on in relief and earning the win for the Cougars was Alfredo Frey (5-0), though he did allow three earned runs on three hits in just 2.0 innings. Meanwhile, Academy of Art sophomore lefty starter Brian Kraft was tagged with the loss, dropping his record to 2-4 on the season, though his seven punchouts were three off his season high and now give him an ART U-leading 49 on the campaign. Earning his third save of the season was APU's Brendon Cannings, who held the Knights without a hit in his 3.0 innings pitched while striking out two and issuing three walks. 

Among the stand outs at the plate were Levine, who was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, two RBI, his fifth homer of the campaign, and a double. That blast ties him with Jellinek for the team lead and fourth-most homers in a single ART U season, while the two runs driven push his season total to 33 and tie him with Ty Conrad (2021) for the second-most in an ART U season (first: Zak May, 35, 2019). Elsewhere, Henderson picked up a multi-hit game by going 2-for-4 with a run scored and batted in, while Fonseca had his pair of RBI while going 1-for-3. Capping off an outstanding series was Niki, as he was 1-for-5 with his first triple of the year and a run scored. Overall, Niki had a hit in all four games and was a combined 7-for-15 (.467). 

Up next for the Knights will be the final PacWest series of the season, with ART U making a return to Southern California to battle against Point Loma in a four game series played as a pair of doubleheaders on April 28 and 29.