The University of Redlands baseball team traveled to Chapman University on Tuesday to take on the Panthers in their rescheduled, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) game that was rained out last week. Although the Bulldogs jumped on the board first, Chapman's offense got hot late in the game and eventually resulted in the Bulldogs' 2-8 loss.
With two outs in the top of the first, sophomore catcher Brendan Moore (Murrieta, CA) stepped up to the dish and fired off a home run over the left-field fence to give senior pitcher John Keane (Clayton, CA) a nice, 1-0 lead before even stepping on the hill.
Keane gave up two singles in the first, but his defense backed him up by turning a double play to keep the Panthers off the board. The second inning proved to be much more successful for Keane, as he went three-up, three-down with two strikeouts.
The Panthers struck back in the fifth inning by connecting on a two-run blast.
After senior hurler John White (Burbank, CA) lifted Keane in the bottom of the seventh inning, Chapman took advantage of an error in the field and capitalized by scoring four runs with no outs. White regrouped and put trust in his defense to retire the next three batters by a pop-out and two fly-outs.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Panthers tacked on two more runs. Freshman pitcher Michael Rishebarger (Oceanside, CA) was called in for the next batter and secured the third out. With just one inning of offense left and down seven runs, the Bulldogs knew they had work to do.
With two outs, junior third basemen Brendan Gardiner (Mission Viejo, CA) singled through the right side, before moving over to second when freshman first baseman Andrew Renteria (Van Nuys, CA) took a hit-by-pitch. Junior short stop Will Hall (Seattle, WA) rocketed a double to left field to score Gardiner. Unfortunately for the Maroon and Gray, the offensive spark ended there, as Chapman sent Redlands home with a 2-8 loss.
The Bulldogs (3-7, 0-3 SCIAC) continue with Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action as they host the Whittier College Poets on Friday, February 24, in the first of the three-game series. Game time is slated for 2:30 p.m. at the Yard.