Westmont built early leads and held off Menlo rallies to pull out a sweep of a Golden State Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader at Menlo on Friday, 9-8 and 6-4.
The Warriors, ranked fifth in the NAIA, improve to 21-2 and 8-2 in the GSAC. Menlo is 6-9, 2-5.
Grant Gardner improved to 6-0 with the win in the opener. He went 6.2 innings, giving up seven runs, six earned, on 10 hits with one strikeout and two walks.
Bryce Morison had a two-run single in the first and Austin Muller belted a three-run homer to give Gardner and the Warriors a 6-2 lead in the fourth.
Muller added a RBI single in the seventh to push the lead to 9-2. He went 2-5 with four RBI.
The Oaks responded with five in the bottom of the seventh.
Kody McLain came on to relieve Gardner and after issuing a walk would entice a groundout to end the inning. McLain surrendered a solo home run in the eighth to Shane Jones. The solo shot brought the Oaks within one of the Warriors though eight at 9-8.
McLain came back out in the ninth. After giving up a lead-off walk, he struck out the next batter. He then gave up a single. Westmont elected to go to the bullpen and bring in Bailey Reid to attempt to close out the game. Reid forced a groundout to first – allowing the tying and winning runs to advance to second and third with two outs. With a 2-2 count on the next hitter, Reid got the Oaks hitter to strikeout swinging to end the game and pick up his fifth save of the season.
Cory Dawson took the mound for the Warriors in game two. Dawson picked up his fifth win of the season as he went six and a third innings and gave up four runs, three earned, on four hits while striking out eight against three walks.
Morison, a Santa Barbara High alum, smacked a three-run homer to help the Warriors go up 4-0.
It was 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh when the Oaks staged a comeback. They pulled to within 6-4 and had the tying run on second base. Reid came in and coaxed Maxwell to fly out to center field to end the game while picking up his second save of the day and sixth of the season.