The University of Redlands baseball team made a valid come-from-behind effort on Friday at The Yard but fell short to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) foe, Whittier College, by a score of 3-5.
Both squads got on the board early, collecting a run in the first inning.
But after several well-placed and somewhat lucky hits by the opponents, the Bulldogs trailed, 1-5, after five frames.
In the bottom of the seventh, junior first baseman Eliot Smith (West Linn, OR) provided a spark of offense with a shot over the right-field fence, giving the first-year Bulldog his second homer of the season
Redlands' first two hitters of the eighth stanza, senior second baseman Cameron Lowe (Olympia, WA) and sophomore centerfielder Alex Scheiwe (Encinitas, CA), laced back-to-back singles to give the club high hopes of a late-game rally. After a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt from sophomore pinch hitter Max Hardman (Encinitas, CA), senior left fielder Trenton Lively (La Verne, CA) brought home Lowe on a deep ground ball. However, that was all that the U of R could muster.
On the hill, junior pitcher Kyle Hart (Burbank, CA) went the distance by tossing all nine innings. The slinger gave up 10 hits on five earned runs while allowing a walk and striking out six Poets. Hart battled through the majority of the contest before finding his rhythm, throwing four hitless innings to finish out his appearance.
Scheiwe led the Maroon and Gray with a 2-for-4 performance at the plate en route to his 13th multi-hit game of 2012.
Redlands (11-11, 5-8) travels to Whittier on Saturday to cap off the weekend series with a doubleheader against the Poets at 11 a.m.
