LAKESIDE, Calif. -- An uphill climb to defending its Golden State Athletic Conference title will rest heavily on Azusa Pacific’s ability to win on the road, and the NAIA’s No. 6-ranked Azusa Pacific picked up an important doubleheader sweep Saturday at San Diego Christian. The Cougars came 1 run away from tying the program’s single-game scoring record with a 32-6 win in the opener, but the sweep nearly slipped away until junior third baseman Ryan Delgado’s 2-run double in the top of the seventh lifted Azusa Pacific to a 7-6 comeback win.

The Cougars picked up a game on GSAC leader Point Loma Nazarene, which split its doubleheader at Westmont Saturday. Azusa Pacific moved to within 2 games of the Sea Lions, with the conference’s top 2 teams set to meet next Thursday, April 9, in a noon doubleheader in San Diego that was originally scheduled to open the conference campaign for both teams on Feb. 7 but was rained out and re-scheduled.

The 32-run, 28-hit outburst in the opener was the program’s highest scoring output since the scoring record was set in a 33-1 win over Westmont in 2001. It was just the fourth 30-run game in program history (30-run games in Azusa Pacific history listed below at end of story), besting a pair of 31-run efforts, and it was the first time Azusa Pacific had scored 30-plus runs on the road. The Cougars were 2 hits shy of tying the single-game hits record of 30, set in a 29-3 home win over U.S. International in 1975.

Azusa Pacific used a pair of 7-run innings in the fourth and sixth innings to take a 17-0 lead, and a lineup consisting entirely of reserves off the bench accounted for 15 additional runs over the final 3 innings. Junior relief pitcher Scott Sakoda batted twice in a 12-run ninth inning, collecting an infield single in his first-ever collegiate plate appearance before capping the inning with a grand slam. San Diego Christian scored all 6 of its runs in the final 2 innings of the opener.

Seventeen different Cougars recorded hits, with 11 registering 2 or more base-hits. The No. 8 spot in the lineup accounted for 6 hits in the game, with starting leftfielder Stephen Gillette and his replacement, freshman Jeff West, each batting 3-for-3 in the game. Each had a pair of extra-base hits, with West tallying 2 doubles and Gillette notching his first of 2 home runs on the day, a sixth-inning grand slam, along with a fourth-inning double.

The Cougars recorded 13 extra-base hits, including 11 doubles that registered just 2 shy of the NAIA single-game doubles record of 13. Azusa Pacific currently shares that record with Embry-Riddle (Fla.) after the Cougars registered 13 2-baggers last year in a 16-8 non-conference road win over Dixie State (Utah).

In the nightcap, Gillette hit a solo home run to left-center with 1 out in the top of a 3-run third inning, and the Cougars pushed the lead to 5-2 with 2 more runs in the fourth. However, San Diego Christian rallied to tie the game at 5-5 with a 3-run fifth, then took the lead in the bottom of the sixth on Ruben Hinojosa’s 2-out RBI single.

Junior catcher Chris Feicht was hit by pitch to lead off the seventh for Azusa Pacific, and junior first baseman Brice Cutspec drew a walk. Delgado knocked the first pitch he saw into right-center for the game-winning 2-run double, and senior righthander Ben Jones finished his 3-inning relief appearance by retiring the Hawks in order in the bottom of the seventh to collect the victory.

With the sweep, Azusa Pacific improves to 28-9 overall, 18-8 GSAC, while San Diego Christian’s conference losing streak reached 17 games as the Hawks drop to 9-26 overall, 2-24 GSAC.

The Cougars are in action on Tuesday, April 7, with a 6 p.m. exhibition contest against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Class A California League affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes at the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga.

30-run games in Azusa Pacific history:

(Feb. 13, 1999) Azusa Pacific 31, Concordia 7

(March 10, 2001) Azusa Pacific 33, Westmont 1

(May 1, 2004) Azusa Pacific 31, Westmont 7

(April 4, 2009) Azusa Pacific 32, San Diego Christian 6