The University of Redlands baseball team fell in both contests on Saturday afternoon in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Tournament, eliminating the squad from the tournament. With all games on the day being hosted by the No. 1 seed, Cal Lutheran University, the Bulldogs fell to the Kingsmen, 2-5. Then, pitted against the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in a win-or-go-home game, the Maroon and Gray offense never got going in a 2-14 loss.
Against the No. 8-ranked Kingsmen of Cal Lutheran, senior pitcher Eliot Smith (West Linn, OR) took the hill for the Bulldogs. The Kingsmen scored one run in the second and two in the third to nab the early lead, before extending the advantage to 4-0 by the fifth frame.
Playing as the home team, Redlands pulled one back in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sophomore shortstop Jordan Dresner (Etiwanda, CA) led off the frame with a single through the left side. Senior second baseman Jason Henning (Redlands, CA) followed that up with an RBI double to left-centerfield, scoring Dresner all the way from first. That run, however, would be all the U of R could get out of the inning.
Cal Lutheran tacked on an insurance run in the eighth, only to see Redlands respond with one of its own in the bottom half of the frame. Dresner notched another hit for the Bulldogs, this time lacing a double to center field and advanced all the way to third base on an error by the center-fielder. Henning then stepped up and provided the Maroon and Gray with another big-time hit, this time to right-centerfield, plating Dresner. For the game, Henning went 2-for-4 with the team's only two RBI. Redlands would eventually strand two in the eighth inning, leaving itself in a tough spot heading into its final at-bat.
The Bulldogs went down 1-2-3 in the ninth, placing them in the elimination game with the Sagehens, who had defeated Occidental College earlier in the day, 5-2.
Smith ended up throwing seven innings in the loss for the U of R, dispersing nine hits and allowing four runs, only three of which were earned. He also struck out five Kingsmen batters.
At the dish, junior center-fielder Alex Scheiwe (Encinitas, CA) and sophomore designated hitter Connor Hancock (Burbank, CA) both went 2-for-4 while Dresner also finished with two hits and scored Redlands' only two runs of the game. In addition, sophomore first baseman Sean McMillan (Redwood City, CA) tallied one hit in the loss.
After having surged past Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in an exciting win on Friday, Redlands knew it would take a great effort to defeat the Sagehens for a second-consecutive game.
The Bulldogs surrendered three runs in the third inning, and then seven more runs in the fourth, putting themselves in an early hole. In addition, the Sagehens tacked on one more in the fifth inning before the Bulldogs got on the board in the bottom half of the fifth frame when junior left-fielder Max Hardman (Encinitas, CA) blasted his first homerun of the season.
Sophomore right-fielder Nathaniel Acosta (Chino Hills, CA) hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to make it 2-11, but that would be all Redlands would get. As a team, the Bulldogs tallied just seven hits in the game, one day after racking up 18 hits against the Sagehens.
Hardman led the way for the Maroon and Gray against Pomona-Pitzer, going 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.
For their efforts throughout the tournament, Henning and Acosta both landed on the All-Tournament team.
Via the win, Pomona-Pitzer moves on to face Cal Lutheran in a battle for the SCIAC Postseason Tournament title, needing to defeat the Kingsmen twice tomorrow in the double elimination tournament.
After being eliminated from the SCIAC Postseason Tournament, Redlands now has a 22-18 overall record after going 17-11 in conference action.