LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The University of Redlands Baseball team played a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) doubleheader Saturday with Occidental College on the road splitting with the Tigers 7-2 and 5-4. In the first game the Bulldogs never trailed, taking advantage of a four-run ninth and in game two put together a late comeback but fell short.
Redlands moves to 16-13, 6-8 SCIAC and find themselves still in the hunt for a SCIAC Tournament berth sitting 6th within the conference standings.
Game 1 (W, 7-2)
First year James Boone (Sammamish, WA) got his first start this month and picked up his second win of his collegiate career going 5.0 Innings strong giving up a run on four hits, while striking out six.
At the plate it was a slow start for the Bulldogs being held off the scoreboard across the first five innings. It wasn't until the top half of the sixth when they finally broke through with Max Clark (Fontana, CA) unleashing on his ninth home run of the season, a two-run shot that scored Mark Kirkland (Redlands, CA). Clark is now tied for fifth within the conference with his nine homeruns.
The lead was short lived though as the Tigers would get those runs back in the bottom half of the sixth, capitalizing on an error. The tie was broken in the top half of the seventh thanks to Jared Anderson (Gilbert, AZ), who went yard, which proved to be the game-winning run.
This one-run advantage held until the ninth when UR opened the game up with four runs on four hits. Jonah Advincula (Santa Clara, CA) singled home Esteban Nakashima (Riverside, CA), Matthew Brumbaugh (Chula Vista, CA) walked in another run, Jake Burgess (Riverside, CA) connected on a sacrifice fly and Clark plated the seventh run with a single on the infield.
Anderson and Clark each had three-hit games combining for six of the 12 Bulldog hits for the contest. Anderson also added two runs and an RBI, while Clark posted three runs batted in and a run scored. Other notable performances came on the mound where Andrew Rueter (San Diego, CA) threw three innings giving up a run on a hit followed by Brumbaugh who threw a scoreless ninth.
Game 2 (L, 5-4)
Redlands fell behind early in Game 2 after a Tiger RBI single to center, but got the run back in the fourth thanks to a solo shot from Kirkland. Cameron Kundig (Redlands, CA) despite giving up that one run kept UR in the game going 5.0 Innings surrendering three hits with a couple of strikeouts.
The game remained tied until the seventh when the Tigers pushed three runs across following a pair of home runs. Kirkland made it a two-run game when he picked up his second RBI on the day after getting hit-by-pitch in the eighth. But the bases loaded threat would end with Brumbaugh and Clark going down on strikeouts.
A third Tiger home run of the game would push the lead back to three at 5-2 heading into the ninth and despite Payton Walsh (Santa Ana, CA) hitting his second home run of the year, a two-run shot that made it 5-4, it wouldn't be enough to spark a comeback as a flyout and a grounder would end the game.
The Bulldogs managed four runs on the game, but they came on five hits (tied for second fewest on the season) as they tied a season-high with 12 strikeouts at the plate. After winning only their second game without 10 plus runs, they dropped their 11th game in which they failed to reach double-digits.
The Bulldogs will start a critical three-game series with Caltech this weekend, April 22 and 24. The single game on Friday will be away beginning at 3:00pm and due to commencement on Saturday the home doubleheader has been moved to Sunday, April 24 with game times set for 11:00am and 2:30pm.