The University of Redlands baseball team concluded its campaign with a pair of losses against Occidental College in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) regular-season finale on Senior Day at the Yard. After dropping the first game, 4-9, the Bulldogs made a late push but fell short in an 8-11 decision in game two of Saturday's doubleheader.
In the third frame of the opening game, sophomore Cal Bridges (Fremont, CA) tied the game at one run apiece with a sacrifice fly.
However, the Tigers put up a crooked number in the top of the fourth for an 8-1 advantage.
Nonetheless, the Bulldogs answered with a three-run inning in the bottom of the sixth to close the gap to 4-8. The seniors stepped up to push the runs across, as senior third baseman Eduardo Martinez-Razo (Rialto, CA) knocked an RBI-single up the middle to get things going for the home team. Senior catcher Bart In den Kleef (Oosterhout, Netherlands) took it from there with a two-RBI single up the middle to plate Martinez-Razo and junior second baseman Andrew Renteria (Van Nuys, CA) for the Bulldogs' fourth run of the game.
But Occidental tallied another run in the top of the seventh to secure the 9-4 result in the opener.
Martinez-Razo and senior shortstop Aaron Singh (Anaheim, CA) were the Bulldogs' only multi-hit players with two knocks each.
In game two, the Tigers rallied to a 4-0 lead through three innings before Redlands began to mount a comeback attempt. In den Kleef continued his solid day with a sacrifice fly, which sent senior first baseman Brendan Moore (Murrieta, CA) home to make it 1-4 at the end of the fourth inning.
After first-year pitcher Chris Hardin (San Bernardino, CA) escaped a bases-loaded scenario in the top of the fifth, Bridges pushed across two runs with a single through the left side to make it a one-score game at 3-4.
However, Occidental put together another big inning in the seventh to earn an 11-4 advantage.
Despite the deficit, the Bulldogs continued to battle with a rally in the bottom of the eighth frame. Singh began the surge with a single through the left side before Bridges followed with a ground-rule double. Renteria capitalized on the opportunity by blasting a two-RBI double to center field to plate the first runs of the inning for the Bulldogs. Facing two outs later in the frame, first-year centerfielder Payton Walsh (Santa Ana, CA) and first-year catcher Matthew Brumbaugh (Chula Vista, CA) hit back-to-back singles for the seventh and eighth runs of the game for Redlands.
But the Bulldogs' momentum stopped there, as the Tigers walked away with an 11-8 victory.
Redlands completes the season with a 14-25-1 overall record and an 8-16 mark in the SCIAC.