RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- After giving up 4 first-inning runs, Azusa Pacific quickly settled in and held its own in a 7-4 exhibition game defeat against the professional Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the Class A California League affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Cougars out-hit the Quakes, who feature 7 of the Angels’ “Top 30 Prospects” as rated by Baseball America, registering 12 hits to Rancho Cucamonga’s 9 in the game. Junior catcher Chris Feicht collected a game-high 3 hits, all singles, and senior shortstop Shaun Lane joined juniors Brice Cutspec and Ryan Delgado with 2 singles each. Senior centerfielder Drew Evans registered Azusa Pacific’s only extra-base hit, a 2-run fourth-inning double down the left-field line. Delgado nearly picked up his third hit of the game in the seventh inning with a hard line drive to the gap in right-center, but the Quakes’ speedy centerfielder Clay Fuller tracked it down with a spectacular leaping catch that took a sure extra-base hit away from the Cougar third baseman.

The Quakes touched up the Cougars for 4 runs in the first inning, but Azusa Pacific answered with a 4-run fourth inning to tie the game at 4-4. Six straight Cougar batters reached safely in the top of the fourth, starting with Cutspec’s 1-out single through the right side. Delgado followed with a chopper over the pitcher’s mound, and Quakes pitcher Tim Kiely’s throwing error to second base put runners on first and second with no outs.

Sophomore rightfielder Virgil Chavira hit a liner up the middle off Kiely to load the bases, and Evans followed with his 2-run double that cut the lead to 4-2. Senior leftfielder Stephen Gillette and Lane drew back-to-back walks that scored another run, and senior designated hitter Eddie Crespo’s fielder’s choice up the middle brought Evans home to tie the game at 4-4.

Rancho Cucamonga scored single runs in 3 different innings, all the result of extra-base hits, to post the final 7-4 margin. Catcher Alberto Rosario, a fifth-year professional out of the Dominican Republic, led off the bottom of the fourth with a double, scoring on Andrew Romine’s groundout to second.

In the bottom of the sixth, Quakes third baseman Jay Brossman, a third-year pro who hit 12 home runs with 16 stolen bases last season at Class A Cedar Rapids, hit an inside-the-park home run to left-center to give Rancho Cucamonga a 2-run cushion at 6-4. Brossman drove freshman righthander Noah Northrop’s 1-1 offering deep towards the wall in left-center, where Evans nearly came up with the catch against the wall. However, the drive caromed off the wall back towards the infield, and by the time Gillette was able to deliver it back to the infield, Brossman had already rounded third on his way to the inside-the-park home run.

With 1 out and a runner on first in the bottom of the eighth, Abel Nieves hit a double to the wall over rightfielder Jeff West. West fired to second baseman Ryan Dowell, whose relay throw beat the runner to the plate, but the umpire ruled Fuller was safe under the tag of Feicht to push the Quakes’ lead to 7-4.

The Cougars faced 2 of the Angels’ top pitching prospects in starter Robert Fish, ranked 20th in the Angels’ system, and closer Mason Tobin, the Angels’ No. 10 prospect who picked up the save in the Rancho Cucamonga win. The Quakes pitching staff struck out 15 Azusa Pacific batters in the 9-inning contest.

Highlights from the Cougar pitching staff included senior righthander Ben Jones’ strikeout of Angels’ No. 18-rated prospect Matt Sweeney to lead off the bottom of a scoreless third inning, as well as Northrop’s 2-inning, 2-strikeout effort in the fifth and sixth innings. The only hit Northrop allowed was Brossman’s home run, and he struck out Fuller, a fourth-year pro rated as the No. 16 prospect in the Angels’ system, and P.J. Phillips, a fifth-year infielder whose older brother Brandon was the Cincinnati Reds’ Opening-Day starter at second base. Junior Scott Sakoda tossed a perfect seventh inning in his fourth live pitching appearance of the season for the Cougars.

Azusa Pacific drops to 1-3 in exhibition contests over the past 5 seasons against Rancho Cucamonga. The Cougars return to action Thursday, April 9, visiting Point Loma Nazarene in a crucial Golden State Athletic Conference doubleheader between the conference’s top 2 teams that are separated by 2 games in the standings. The twinbill in San Diego begins at noon.