Loyola Plays Host to San Francisco

The Loyola Marymount baseball team, having lost three of four games, will try to climb back in the West Coast Conference race when it plays host to last-place University of San Francisco in a three-game series starting today.

The Lions trail second-place St. Mary’s by a half-game and are four behind league leader Pepperdine.

Lion first baseman Joe Ciccarella has taken over the team lead in batting at .403 and is first in virtually every category: runs (42), hits (50), doubles (11), triples (three) and stolen bases (14). He is tied with Gerardo Perez for the team lead in home runs with seven. Perez leads the Lions with 40 runs batted in and also has seven homers. Mark Tillman is second on the team in batting at .389.

Chad Dembisky leads the pitching staff with a 7-4 record and 3.57 earned-run average, although he was the loser Tuesday as Cal State Long Beach scored seven runs in the first inning on the way to a 16-9 victory. Relief specialist Joe Caruso has nine saves and a team-high 64 strikeouts in 62 innings.