The No. 2-seeded University of Redlands baseball squad laced up its spikes for the first round of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Tournament against the No. 3-seeded Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens on Friday afternoon at the friendly confines of the Yard. The Bulldogs remained in the winners' bracket by defeating the Sagehens, 10-4, while firing on all cylinders to reel in the first-round triumph.
Junior hurler Michael Collins (Upland, CA) was granted the start and got to work immediately by sitting down the Sagehens' lineup in order. He found early success by pounding the inner half of the dish, thus forcing many jam-shot groundballs and lazy pop flies.
The Bulldogs displayed excellent patience at the plate in the opening frame, as junior third baseman Mark Tumlinson (Anaheim, CA), senior catcher Sean McMillan (Redwood City, CA), and senior shortstop Jordan Dresner (Etiwanda, CA) drew three-consecutive, one-out walks to juice up the bases. Senior right-fielder Connor Hancock (Burbank, CA) followed with a slick, slow dribbler to the first baseman, who fumbled the ground ball and threw it away in an attempt to notch the force out at home plate, allowing Tumlinson and McMillan to score on the error.
The momentum stayed with the home team, as freshman designated hitter Joey Warner (Indio, CA) promptly slapped an opposite-field double down the left-field line, plating Hancock and Dresner. Junior first baseman Ryan Franklin (Manhattan Beach, CA) capped off the first-inning scoring spurt with a sacrifice groundout to second base, plating junior outfielder Mitch Samson (Orangevale, CA) to hold a 5-0 advantage through the first inning.
However, the Sagehens began to chip away at the deficit, pushing across increments of runs one at a time over the course of the subsequent four innings to make it a 4-5 ball game.
Nevertheless, Collins continued to grind on the mound as he pitched with poise by striking out two batters and giving up three runs over five innings of work.
"Everything felt pretty good," described Collins. "My main priority was making sure I had everything on point. "
Collins, who is primarily slotted in the third position of the rotation, praised his coaching staff for trusting him in the critical situation, which allowed him to haul in his seventh win of the year.
"Being in that three spot the entire year and then coming out here and getting the first start shows a lot about the coaching staff and how much trust they have in me. Getting the ball and giving my team a chance to win feels awesome."
After being lifted in the sixth inning, sophomore slinger John White (Burbank, CA) followed in Collins' footsteps by chucking the pearl with confidence and savvy. After allowing a hit to the first batter he faced, he struck out one and forced an inning-ending double play all with the bases loaded to maintain the 5-3 lead.
White flipped on the cruise control the following three innings while allowing one hit and fanning three batters to eventually earn the save. The junk-baller was extremely deceptive, throwing from a variety of different arm angles, which undoubtedly fooled the Pomona-Pitzer offense.
"I just tried to make my pitches and trust my coaches," said White. "The good thing is that we won and we have to take it to La Verne tomorrow."
The Bulldog offense did not quit in the bottom of the seventh inning, as junior first baseman John Keane (Clayton, CA) slapped a pinch-hit RBI-single to right field, scoring Hancock. Keane followed by swiping second base and drawing a throw, allowing Samson to come around to score for the Maroon and Gray's 7-3 lead.
Redlands added three more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, starting with a hit-by-pitch from Samson to score Tumlinson. Hancock crossed home plate for the third time in the game after the Sagehen pitcher balked. Warner followed by tattooing his second double of the game to score Samson, putting the Bulldogs up by a score of 10-4.
Head Coach Aaron Holley was more than pleased with his squad after doing everything it needed to do to reign supreme.
"You don't want to save anything; you need to win now," described Holley when asked about the game and what he expects the rest of the way.
The second-year head coach had nothing but praise for his squad after today's performance, especially for the pitching staff.
"We were pretty confident throwing [Michael] Collins," said Holley. "He has thrown so great against Pomona and we knew he could keep them off balance. I was confident that if we threw [White] out there, he could get us some innings. He just kept throwing up zeros, so I told him to 'just keep going.'"
With the bats slow to heat up, Holley touched on the timely hitting of his guys in crucial moments of the contest.
"A good team has guys who can step it up and pick it up. John Keane comes of the bench and gets a huge hit to score some runs late, and then Joey Warner has a couple big hits for us. That's team baseball. The team that plays best and the team that can pick you up is going to be the team that continues on in the postseason."
The Bulldogs (28-12) heads to Thousand Oaks to face off against the No. 4-seeded University of La Verne Leopards, which defeated the top-seeded Cal Lutheran Kingsmen in Friday's matchup. Redlands takes on the Leopards at 11:30 a.m. The winner of that contest advances to the SCIAC Postseason Tournament Championship on Sunday, with the loser playing against on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in an elimination game.