Box Score

The Sunbirds didn't let the cold weather cool down their bats as they gradually added runs while relying on the left arm of Drew Merlo in a 5-0 shutout win over Shorter University in FPU's second pool play game at the 2014 NCCAA World Series. The win puts Fresno Pacific in the driver's seat of Pool A heading into tomorrow's double-header showdown against Oklahoma Christian (1-0) and Trinity Christian (0-1).

"I thought today we showed how well rounded our team is. We got good pitching, timely hitting and I thought our base running was great," said head coach Oscar Hirschkorn.

Merlo scattered three hits across eight innings while striking out six Hawks (15-35) in his second longest outing of the season. Anthony Cantu came on to pitch a scoreless ninth and give the Sunbirds (35-19) their sixth shutout win of the year.

"Drew gave us exactly what we needed not just today, but in this tournament going forward," said Hirschkorn. "I thought he showed how tough of a pitcher he is today. It took him a little bit to get his secondary stuff going, but he finally settled in and was dominant for us."

The junior southpaw worked out of a jam in third inning after allowing two of the first three batters to get on base. A pair of groundouts kept Shorter off the board to end the inning. The Hawks would threaten again in the fourth after a one-out walk followed by a single from Ian Redetzky put two on with only one out. Merlo worked out of the jam once again inducing a 5-3 double play ball to end the inning.

At the plate it was the trio of Travis Beck, Kaohu Gaspar and John Koretoff doing most of the damage, as the three were responsible for three of the five runs in the game. Gaspar went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Beck finished 2-for-2 with a pair of runs batted in.

FPU got things going quickly striking first in the bottom half of the first inning on a Gaspar RBI single that brought home Joshua Banuelos. It would remain the only run of the game until the fourth when the Sunbirds began a string of three-straight innings with a run scored. Travis Beck brought home Nico Payan, who was running for Koretoff who finished 2-for-3, in the fourth and sixth innings, and Banuelos singled home Bower in the fifth.

With the Sunbirds already leading 4-0 Koretoff once again got aboard after being hit by Chadd Felder on the first pitch. A stolen base by courtesy runner Nico Payan, one of 10 swiped bags on the day for FPU, followed by a Beck groundout to first led to a sac fly to right field by McKay France that would give the Sunbirds the 5-0 final score.

Fresno Pacific will face the top seed Oklahoma Christian tomorrow at 10 a.m. PST followed by a 3 p.m. showdown with eighth-seeded Trinity Christian. A win against OCU would all but guarantee the Sunbirds a spot in Saturday's semi-finals.