AZUSA, Calif. -- Senior righthander Garrett Lebsock threw 5 innings of 2-hit ball, and 4 other Azusa Pacific pitchers combined for 4 shutout innings and a combined 3-hitter to lead the NAIA’s No. 8-ranked Cougars to an 8-1 victory over Dixie State (Utah). The game took just 1 hour and 53 minutes to complete, and it was the shortest 9-inning home contest for Azusa Pacific in at least a decade.

“We hammered the strike zone, which is what we wanted to do,” Cougar head coach Paul Svagdis said. “We really have a lot of respect for Dixie State and think they’re a great hitting team, so to see those guys come out pumping strikes and get ahead of hitters was really good for us.”

Lebsock came on for the 5-inning appearance after senior Garrett Hodges and junior Peter Gehle each got in an inning of scoreless work to start the game. In his 5-inning stint, Lebsock surrendered 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 6, picking up his second relief victory of the season. He was followed by perfect 1-2-3 innings from senior righthanders Christian Gagne and Ben Jones to complete the Cougars’ strong mound effort. All 5 pitchers for both teams struck out at least 1 batter, and Lebsock was the only pitcher to issue a walk.

“When a guy like Garrett Hodges goes out there just to get work in, but he pumps in a strike first pitch and punches a guy out, it really sets a confidence level amongst the team,” Svagdis said.

“That senior leadership on the mound was great to see. If this team only worries about how they play rather than what the opponents are doing or what the situation is, I would be really happy with that. If they can do that every day, I’ll be excited.”

For the first time in 6 games, Azusa Pacific’s offense didn’t score in the first inning, but junior catcher Chris Feicht hit a 2-out, 2-run home run to right field in the bottom of the second to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead. Feicht homered again in his next at-bat, slamming the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence after junior leftfielder Stephen Gillette led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo shot to right.

All 8 Azusa Pacific runs came by way of the longball. Junior first baseman Brice Cutspec went to the opposite field for a sixth-inning solo shot down the left-field line, his fifth home run of the season. In the seventh, back-to-back 2-out errors on infield grounders put 2 runners on for the Cougars’ RBI leader, third baseman Ryan Delgado,and Delgado smacked the full-count offering over the fence in right-center field for his team-high seventh home run while running his team-high season RBI total to 23.

With the win, Azusa Pacific wraps up the first week of its season with a 6-0 record while out-scoring opponents by an 84-16 margin. Dixie State drops to 0-2 on the season.

The Cougars are scheduled to open the 36-game Golden State Athletic Conference schedule Saturday with an 11 a.m. doubleheader at Point Loma Nazarene, in what will be the earliest starting date for conference baseball play in GSAC history.